all dressed up for school

Comic

2009-12-10T04:28:02Z

As always, PhD Comics says it all in 4 panels. This is pretty much been my day today. Just without the snow and scarf. It started out with really great intentions but I have only got 300 words on the page today. I really need to do better than this if I'm ever going to finish this thing.

Beatlesque

2009-12-04T05:37:25Z

After my spectacularly unproductive day yesterday, I decided to give up on my work on rhythms and think about something else for a while. It was becoming so painfully slow to work on it that nothing was getting done. I know I should have finished it but for some reason I just can't seem to do it. The only thing I can think to do is be productive about some other part of my paper.

Instead of doing my head in with rhythms, I have read some interesting papers on structure and the influence of Tin Pan Alley/Brill Building on the development of early 60s rock and roll forms. These papers are all in relation to the Beatles. Because there are no papers discussing the Beach Boys in this way (thank goodness really, or my paper would be pointless), the Beatles are the closest contemporaries and I find myself reading a lot of Beatles papers to find information about the Beach Boys too. I will talk more about these ideas about structure in another post (though I do have an urge to experiment with some AABA structures right now!) but I have been thinking a little bit about a phrase that gets thrown around a lot.

Beatlesque.

It's used everywhere, even on music that doesn't sound like the Beatles, even to describe structures (formal, harmonic, melodic) that the Beatles rarely used (e.g., anything with a descending chord progression, even though the fabs only used this occasionally it is "beatlesque"). In fact, the term might almost be a bit passé. One of those terms journalists use when they don't know anything about the type of pop music they are reviewing. "Err, it's happy pop, it must be Beatlesque'. Tim and I laughed not long ago about a review (a can't remember what for now) that used the term "badfingeresque" in an attempt to avoid the word "beatlesque" which is kind of hilarious: Comparing music that sounds like the Beatles to.. not the Beatles, but a band that tried to sound like the Beatles?

But what the hell. BEATLESQUE! I use it and I'm sure a lot of my friend do. What is interesting, though, is that there is a term for the influence of the Beatles sound, but there is no term for the Beach Boys. There is no "Wilsonesque" or "Beach Boysian" sound. "Oh did you hear that modulation? That's so Wilsonesque!" People don't use those terms. I wonder why that is? The Beach Boys' had a sound easily as identifiable as the Beatles, but there's no accepted phrase for their influence on later pop music in the "canon" (another one of those passé words?).

What does this mean? Hrrrm.

pet_studies @ 2009-12-01T13:20:00

2009-12-01T03:20:47Z

Okay. I sent off all my abstracts. They are gone. Now I have to play the waiting game. Waiting for my rejection letter! I know you're all going to jump on me about being negative here but I know my chances are pretty slim. I had my hopes up last year and was rejected from 3 conferences so I need to not be so excited about it.

The waiting game sucks, let's play hungry hungy hippos.

300 words or less.

2009-11-30T10:51:45Z

Little abstract to PopCanz conference in Sydney next year. Doubt I will have much luck getting in but we will see...

Won’t Be Long Till Summer Time is Through; The Beach Boys’ Music and the California Myth.

Few other pop groups have an association with a particular location as strong as the Beach Boys’ association with Southern California. The term “California Myth” has been used to describe the fantasy of Californian culture - the sun, surf, cars, girls and endless summer - portrayed in the Beach Boys’ music from 1962-65. This association with the California Myth is explicit in the band’s name, album artwork, clothing, and, of course, the sound of their music. This paper will be a textual analysis of songs from the Beach Boys’ repertoire, exploring the musical attributes, production techniques, and lyrical themes in the Beach Boys’ music which shaped, and were shaped by, the California Myth.

This myth manifests itself in the Beach Boys’ music in three major ways. Firstly, it is evoked by musical attributes such as fast-paced tempos, major keys, specific chordal progressions, complex instrumental arrangements, and musical structures. Secondly, it is evoked by the Beach Boys’ use of particular production techniques, such as the use of triple-tracked vocal harmonies and saturated reverb. Thirdly, the connection between the Beach Boys’ lyrical themes and the California Myth is obvious in almost every song during the 1962-65 period (e.g., “California Girls”, “All Summer Long”, and “Fun Fun Fun”).

Brian Wilson’s deliberate use of particular musical attributes, production techniques and lyrical themes - integral to the Beach Boys’ sound – expressed this commonly perceived notion of Californian culture despite his personal reluctance to engage with it. Through a study of these elements of the Beach Boys’ sound, the complicated relationship of their music to Southern California can be understood.

pet_studies @ 2009-11-25T11:56:00

2009-11-25T01:56:01Z

Do you think a change of scene might inspire me to do some more work? I am out at the library at the moment and thankfully all the undergrads have finally gone. When I tried to come in here before exams the place was absolutely full. And they talk. Constantly. On their phones. Throwing stuff around, sprawlled all over the floor so you can't get past. Argh. The place is almost empty (like it usually is) - lots of places to sit, couches, lots of power points to use, sweet sweet airconditioning. All I have to do now is not get disctracted by all the books and keep focused. I can do that, right?

I have been working on an abstract to that New Orleans conference, I think I'm almost done. 300 words exactly. Can you pick up anything wrong with it? It is about the two curious lifecycles of surf music in the 1960s (as it was one of the conference themes).

If everybody had an ocean; the life cycles of 1960s Surf Music in California. (still nutting out a title, actually)

Surf music was a popular musical style originating in California in the 1960s. Within the genre, two clear lifecycles are evident: one based around the instrumental guitar music of Dick Dale, and one based around vocal group pop songs of The Beach Boys. Both are clearly linked to California and to surf culture, yet appealed to very different audiences. These differences are best explained through the music itself. Therefore, in this paper, the music of both artists will be explored through a textual analysis of representative songs.

The instrumental music of Dick Dale was for surfers and was meant to be understood by surfers – its chords, melodies, and arrangements reflected the sound, movement and uncertainty of the waves, the ocean and the experience of surfing. Dale’s music was popular in Southern California, but his most successful local single, “Misirlou” (1962), failed to reach the Billboard Top 150 chart.

In contrast, The Beach Boys’ surfing songs were both local and national hits; “Surfin’ USA” (1963) reached number three on the Billboard chart. However, local surfers found them inauthentic as the Beach Boys themselves did not surf. Their music was about the surfing lifestyle, incorporating ‘surfer’ jargon, and featuring descriptions of surfing situations, people, and paraphernalia. While they covered Dick Dale, their music was more heavily influenced by Chuck Berry, The Four Freshmen and 1950s doo-wop. It was this combination of musical elements that made the Beach Boys’ version of surf music accessible to the rest of the world.

Although Dick Dale and The Beach Boys both made 'surf music', and both appealed to 1960s California youth culture, a textual analysis of musical attributes such as instrumentation, lyrics, harmony, and melody shows that the difference between music for surfers and music about surfers is best understood through analysis of the music itself.
......................

I know I have 1% chance of getting accepted to this, but my heart still hopes for the best.

Okay, now I have to do at least ONE good golden hour before lunchables.

Little Things I Love About the Beach Boys #2

2009-11-22T12:37:54Z

#2: The Beach Boys' Sunflower record.

One sad thing about my studies is that I don't get to include this lovely record. Sunflower, unfortunately, doesn't get talked about very much. It's not an "important" Beach Boys' record to most, but I think it is a really beautiful moment in time. It has such a great sound to it, it's hazy and soft, but full of beautiful arrangements, surprising twists and turns, interesting themes. It's big and small at the same time. I actually think it is one of my favourite Beach Boys albums (after Pet Sounds and Today!). From the unbelievable "This Whole World" (the chords do my head in, and it is also home to my favourite AUM DOP DIDITS!), that lovely vocal bridge in "Add Some Music To Your Day", the gorgeous sleepy arrangement on "Deirdre", Dennis' crowning moment on "Forever" and hazy, dreamy beauty of "Our Sweet Love". I truly love this record and while it does sound (there's that word again) like the Beach Boys, I don't think it's what most people would expect to hear on their 13th studio album. I've included some links to those songs, they are all album versions with the exception of "This Whole World" which is from a 1990s project Brian did called "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times". I couldn't find the original version on YouTube but it is truly magnificent.

Most of the songs I have listed here I heard on the Beach Boys Capitol Years boxset first, which was given to my by my parents as a Christmas present a number of years ago (8?). I owned this before I owned all of the albums - the boxset featured a collection of songs from each album, plus some bonuses. I remember Christmas afternoon, laying on my bed, listening to these songs for the first time and just swooning. It was truly magical. Summer is in the air here, the humidity, the slightly longer days, sometimes I feel like I could recreate that perfect afternoon discovering Sunflower for the first time. I'll try not to analyse things here (I could, you know!), but it is one thing I love about the Beach Boys that I will not get to talk about in my PhD. Oh well... post doc?

IASPM 2010

2009-11-14T12:23:00Z

Oh holy crap:

IASPM-US 2010 - Births, Stages, Declines, Revivals
November 13th, 2009

2010 Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music – U.S. Branch
New Orleans, Louisiana, April 9-11
Deadline for abstracts: 1st December, 2009
iaspm2010cfp.jpg
New Orleans has long been known as the “birthplace of jazz;” more recently, it has become a signifier for ruin. The chaos wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 signaled a shocking sense of loss in the music world: some musicians lost their lives and many lost their livelihoods; the city’s ubiquitous choirs, marching bands, and parades were disrupted and displaced. Residents of New Orleans, particularly the working poor, were evacuated and have yet to permanently return. And yet, at the same time, both remaining and former residents have fought to hold on to and even revive their cherished culture. Performers, bands, and fans have commuted from their temporary homes, worked to replenish instruments, continued the city’s parades and festivals, and cultivated the spirit of music for which the city is so well-known. These circumstances in New Orleans raise broader issues of birth and death, change and endurance, as music is practiced by people in cities and regions across the world:

* What is the appeal, use, or meaning of thinking about musical origins?
* How can we best understand the various “births” of different genres of music and their relationships to place, culture, or individual agency?
* What are the nature and meanings of “classic” music?
* How have “roots” functioned as a metaphor in American music criticism?
* In what ways can we connect the life cycles of music scenes, genres, and styles to that of individuals, cultures, and places?
* How do musicians and listeners mark life passages and stages–birth, youth, aging, death–through music?
* How do instances of musical sound (a cracking voice, varying rhythms, instrumental textures) signify the aging body or changing environments?
* How can we account for the decline, waning, or even “deaths” of different musics?
* What is the significance of beginnings and endings in songs?
* How can we best talk about alleged phenomena like “gray-out” or “homogenization” in music?
* What is the nature of “unfinished” work in different music genres?
* How, exactly, do remixing, rereleasing, or remastering revive songs and albums?
* What can we learn from efforts to preserve music through grant programs, festivals, “legacy” box sets, and other methods?

We invite proposals that explore these issues in New Orleans or other localities; we are also open to proposals that address other current topics of research and debate in the study of popular music, broadly defined. Proposals for individual papers should consist of a 300-word abstract and a 1-page CV of the author. Panel, roundtable, and other group proposals should consist of a 300-word summary of the panel topic, in addition to abstracts and CVs for each of the participants.

.....................................
I would give absolutely anything to be able to get to the States before the end of my PhD, and I am absolutely dying to both go to an international conference AND go to New Orleans. Seriously. I have to apply for this. What! How! Argh! How will I make my work fit into this....

Comic.

2009-11-11T00:03:55Z

I can't really sum things up better than PhD Comics. Seriously, snapshots of my everyday life are in almost every one. (At least I'm not alone?).

Workshops

2009-11-10T23:24:44Z

At 1:30pm today is the grammar workshop I signed up for last week. I am now contemplating whether I should go or not. Truthfully, I was hoping to have had a little more writing done so that I could have something vaguely complete (as in a whole section that is complete over two pages) to take along. You're supposed to bring along a couple of pages of your writing to work on while you're in the class.

Now... I would probably go along to this if I knew that I could work on my own stuff without having to hand it to someone else have THEM work on it. Sometimes in these workshops, your writing is edited by your peers. Sometimes that would be a good thing, but right now I think I am way too self-conscious for it because I have a lot of different sections that don't actually join together yet. It is also a FIRST draft so things are very VERY rough. I don't really want to make an ass out of myself in front of a lot of people. Most of the time it says on the description whether you will have to do this or not (and the one I signed up for does not mention it) but still, I don't know! Hmm!

I really don't want to wuss out but I worry that I might! I have a few hours before I have to leave and maybe I will get a few more paragraphs done by then that would be useful to take along...but I wish there was more information about what each workshop would entail. Stupid nerves! Stupid! I frustrate myself so much!

Okay, okay, I'll go.

pet_studies @ 2009-11-06T13:25:00

2009-11-06T03:25:54Z

I am having trouble working today. Maybe to make this better I should write about why I am having problems and why I am finding things so difficult.

I am looking at Beach Boys' songs with shuffle feels. I'm not sure how to describe this to non-musicians but very basically, a straight feel sounds like this: da-da da-da da-da da-da (like "I Get Around") and a shuffle feel sounds more skippy, like this: DA-da DA-da DA-da DA-da (like "California Girls"). Because I can only look at very basic rhythmic elements (no time or room to look at all the quirky stuff) I have to first outline what the role of the drums is. Most of the time, the kit is playing a very basic, traditional rock and roll part on kick, snare and hats. The other change to this is when the hats are omitted and another instrument takes its place (like a piano playing chords, a tambourine, shaker or other percussive instrument). I have set up a framework to analyse the music that is based on these two basic changes (there are a couple of others... such as song with no drums altogether, etc). This seemed fine until I got up to songs with shuffles.

I, for one, am a huge fan of the shuffle. There must be something about shuffles that is attractive to piano players (it does just feel good to play) because lots of them do it (Fats Domino to Ben Folds). Almost everything I write comes out as a shuffle and I'm not sure why. When I started this analysis I thought heaps of Beach Boys' songs would be shuffles but it turns out that over 5 years there are only 13 of them. That's it! The reason I thought there were more is because a lot of their hit singles were shuffles - Little Deuce Coupe, California Girls, Help Me, Rhonda, Wouldn't It Be Nice, God Only Knows (implied shuffle) and also Good Vibrations (however I haven't looked at that song). What is it about the shuffle that makes it good for a single? What is it about the shuffle that makes it blow apart my framework? Four songs feature a traditional full kit, four feature just the kick and snare but the largest grouping - five - don't fit either of these categories. So how do I talk about these? Do I have to actually describe them all invidually? Do I brush over it and say they're all different, isn't that curious, but moving right along...?

Only a draft, but you get the idea. I handwrote 80 pages of this stuff. Every single rhythm.
This is part of "California Girls" - you know, the start of the second verse where it goes "The West coast has the sunshine and the girls all get so tanned..." (ooh wah ooh wah, etc). Maybe if I ever start to enjoy this stuff again I can make "The Beach Boys - The Complete Scores"... yeah right!

What is of most importance to me in working out how the Beach Boys' sound works is to find commonalities (ideally these common traits will form the framework of their 'sound' as they're use the most), but how do I find commonalities when there are only differences. Trying to explain the many slight rhythmic changes in "California Girls" (the use of the triplet hats in the intro, the syncopated use of the toms, doubling of snare and tom parts, the use of fills, sections with no drums, the use of only a cymbal instead of hats, the replacing of hats with tambourine...and so on...) makes my head explode. How do I talk about everything while still making sense, while still being INTERESTING. Cause oh man, this stuff bores me stupid sometimes. I understand that music will not always fit into my frameworks - otherwise everything would sound the same - but working out how to logically discuss how songs don't fit is more difficult than you would imagine.

Workshops

2009-11-04T00:37:45Z

In an effort to be more proactive about my writing (much like the updating of this blog again) I signed up for a couple more RHD workshops.

The first one is next week:
English Grammar for Thesis Writers
You are asked to bring a piece of your writing to the workshop to maximise the learning opportunity. If possible, the piece should be from your thesis, ideally the first page or two of a draft chapter or section. You are encouraged to identify and work on your own grammatical issues, questions and problems in a supportive group environment. Basic grammatical rules and conventions are discussed.

I could probably use a brush-up on some grammatical rules, I know I can write awkwardly at times. I think this could be really useful but the idea of bring in a page or two of a draft makes me anxious. What draft? I don't feel like I've actually written anything. Anything that's near completion anyway. I get mad at myself for not signing up to more thesis writing groups because I think "I haven't done enough work to participate"...or "It's all in fragments" or "It's only my results section"... blah blah blah.

The second is a much bigger 3-day workshop (which I think will be at the Nathan campus, bahh).

Post-confirmation Research Intensive (three days)
This three-day intensive is designed to give you time to consider and try out different approaches in a relaxed and supportive environment. Each day will have a different focus, informed by a specific approach to thesis writing. Guest presenters will include students and professors.

Monday: Writing and Publishing
This action packed day, where you will be writing and discussing writing, will be enlivened by a session on Getting Published with Professor Richard Johnstone.
The day's writing activities will be based on R. Murray (2002) How to write a thesis, OUP, and Hugh Kearns & Maria Gardiner, IRUA Complete PhD Program (2009). Murray handouts provided.
Participants will receive a free copy of Up the Publication Road by Royce Sadler.

Tuesday: Writing with Clarity
The hard work of the writing exercises and analysis will be alleviated by student presentations and a Let's Edit session where you will edit one another's work under guidance.
You will work through exercises and discuss principles asserted by Joseph Williams (2007) Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 9th edn, Pearson Longman. Handouts provided.

Wednesday: Research Issues Forum and Review
You will spend the morning working through theme, rheme and zig-zag patterning. Based on B. Kamler & P. Thompson (2006) Helping doctoral students write, Routledge. Handouts provided.
An experienced supervisor/examiner will lead a lively Research Issues Forum, followed by 'Thesis in a Nutshell' session, then Review and Planning.

Thesis in a Nutshell
In this session you will be invited to present your thesis in 3 minutes. There will be a time-keeper and you will be stopped at the gong! What would you include? What would you exclude? Don't miss this excellent opportunity to have fun and gain some valuable experience in presenting your ideas coherently and concisely.

This is something that could be REALLY useful for me, learning about writing, how to write, reflecting on things I have written, etc. I really want to go to this but the idea of having to write on command and also have people I have never met edit and comment on my work makes me SUPER ANXIOUS. Which I guess is even more reason to go? Tim said there was a similar workshop at his uni and students were writing entire chapters over the workshop. I can't even imagine that! I don't know, I try to put myself in the deep end with a lot of this stuff, force myself to feel uncomfortable, but it is actually really hard to do this sometimes. Anyway, it is in mid-December so I guess I have time to wuss out if I want to, but I'd like not to have to do that. I usually feel really enthusiastic after doing these courses, though this one is the longest and most intense one I will ever have signed up for.

Is it bad that I am writing about signing up for writing workshops to procrastinate from actually doing my WRITING?

Conferences.

2009-11-02T00:05:39Z

This is not going to come as a huge surprise, but I haven't felt particularly confident throughout my PhD so far. Granted I was in another place for some of my candidature (which has its pros and cons) but I think because of it, I've never really felt like a proper research student. One of the reasons for this is because I've not even presented at a single conference. It's something that I often panic over because I feel like I will finish (!?) my PhD with absolutely no experience to help me get a job - no teaching experience (which I am so desperate to do), no publishing of papers, no conferences. Sometimes it makes me feel like a total waste because I don't really expect it to change that much. I see myself finishing this thing (well, sort of) and just being completely stuck. I wouldn't even have anything to put on an academic CV. Tim has stacks of stuff to put on his and even he is finding it exceptionally hard to find work. I feel like I have boxed myself into a corner and I do experience a lot of anxiety about it. I mean... A LOT.

I have applied for several conferences and been knocked back for almost all of them. The one conference I was accepted to I ended up being unable to present due to a few problems with my confirmation last year that left me completely out of time to prepare for it. I was really bummed about the whole thing. I attended in the end but I felt like fish out of water. I was at a popular music conference and no one was even talking about the music. I am completely alienated in my own field. Conferences on popular music are completely over-run by sociologists and cultural theorists. I feel like I have no place. I have research funds I haven't been able to use because I just can't seem to get in to anything. I was so hoping to at least have got the chance to go to an international conference during my PhD, as chances for that will be absolutely nil once I finish it, but chances to do this seem to be dwindling.

There are two with closing dates at the end of November and one in mid-December.

1) PopCAANZ 2120 in Sydney in June/July next year.
It seems to focus on general pop-culture stuff so the outline is a total mixed bag.

This interdisciplinary and transnational conference is accepting proposals on ALL aspects of popular culture including but not limited to:

* Graphic Novels, Comics and Visual Cultures (Dr Paul Mountfort, AUT)
* Popular Design (Dr Derham Groves, University of Melbourne)
* Popular Romance Studies (Dr Glen Thomas, QUT)
* Popular Fiction (Dr Toni Johnson-Woods, UQ)
* Film and TV (Dr Rebecca Beirne, University of Newcastle)
* Fashion (Dr Vicki Karaminas, UTS)
* Food Studies (Toni Risson, University of Queensland)
* Popular Science (Dr William Lott, QUT)
* Linguistics (Alan Libert, University of Newcastle)
* Queer Studies (Dr Samar Habib, University of Western Sydney)
* Journalism and Popular Culture (Dr John Cokely, UQ)
* Popular History (Dr Hsu-Ming Teo, Macquarie University)
* Sports and Popular Culture (Carol Wical, UQ)
* Philosophy and Popular Culture
* International Popular Culture
* IT, Gaming, New Media, Internet and Popular Culture
* Popular Performance/Entertainment
* Transport/Scooter/Biker Culture
* Popular Music
* Indigenous Cultures and Literature
* Green Issues and Popular Culture
* Writing (Creative/Non Fiction)
* Libraries, Archives, Museums and Popular Research

We will also be holding a postgraduate poster evening. All postgrads and undergrads (provided they are working with the guidance of a trained scholar) interested in presenting their would-be or current research are invited to submit an abstract. Please mark your submissions: Poster Session.

I figure even if I can't get a look in during the popular music section, maybe I should be applying for a poster session? Music conferences don't seem to have these poster things very often, but I know Tim has done a couple of them and found them to be quite helpful. Plus this looks like it's just for postgrads so maybe I would have more of a chance there against the sociologists?

2) The Experience Music Project in Seattle in April next year.
This is quite a huge conference, not just academics but musicians, journalists, etc. I would love to be able to go and see what this all about (it would also at least get me to the States and closer to my beloved California). I have a book called "This is Pop!" which is a collection of presentations from this conference. Unfortunately, the topic doesn't especially fit my research as it is about technology mostly (like so many pop music conferences seem to be these days).

Popular music might be narrated as a story of sounds and the machines that make them. From the talking drum and parlor room piano to the Gibson Les Paul, from the Edison phonograph to Roland 808 beatbox and Antares Autotune software, how have pop's contraptions reflected, inflected, and mediated musical history? What changes when we start with the technology that makes the ineffable material, and its shaping of modes of production and consumption? As we close out a decade of momentous change at all levels of popular music, this is a salient moment for rethinking the continual dialogue in pop between the new and the traditional. Note: this call is not aimed only at gearheads. What counts as human is produced in and through the use of technologies. We need to hear the voices that wrap flesh around the wiring.

Topics can cover any era or style of music and may include, but are not limited to:

* Hardware: the effect of equipment on how we make, record, disseminate, and fetishize music.
* Business: economies of scale(s), the demand for profit in changing technological contexts.
* Identity: how youth culture, Afromodernism, and transgender/transsexual personas, manufactured divas and real fem-bots, among other pop categories, deploy technology.
* Technology in the 2000s: iPods, computer game music, music and war, digital technology exhuming analog artifacts.
* Aesthetics: "perfect sound forever" to pixelation and lossy file formats; Computer Love erotics; power chords from amplified blues to Guitar Hero.
* "The street finds its own use for things": working class, global, racial, and other subaltern appropriations of technology, from sound systems to rock camps for girls.
* Bodies as technologies: the "natural" as a response to changing artifices; the voice as a modifiable tool.
* Music writing and the technological formations it rests upon.
* Anxieties and doubts: folk revivalists, roots rockers, and other tech-refuseniks.

Granted, the production used in the Beach Boys' music contributes largely to their sound (the way songs were recorded, orders of instruments, Phil Spector influences, the way the 4 track was used, copious amounts of plate reverb, etc) however, it's part of my research I haven't quite got up to yet and the idea of talking tech (NOT my strong point!) in front of a lot of people does make me nervous. (Er, more nervous than usual!). If only there were a way, an angle, to discuss the Beach Boys' sound while referring to technology and not getting bogged down in gear-talk to focus on the music. Thoughts? Hmm.

I know I should at least apply to both of these and see what happens...
I wish I could start my own conference that was just about the study of popular MUSIC(ology) and have a lot of great ideas flying around from people who are trying to do similar things to myself. Wouldn't it be nice?

The Long Tidal Sigh.

2009-10-29T04:03:51Z

"'You of all people will understand.' What a presumptuous and no doubt misguided statement. Probably you only have a faint idea of what the Beach Boys meant to me even back then; just as I must rely on imagination to tease out hints of what, really, they meant to you. Two people focus simultaneously on the same object - let it be "Don't Worry Baby" - and are sure they have attained a shared knowledge. Facile assumption, extrapolation, inspired guesswork: that's all such knowledge counts for…To play those records - set those particular waves in motion - was perhaps our way of letting the air itself participate in our lovemaking. To love is to share: that’s what we've always wanted to believe, and so the emblematic gesture of our lives - all of our lives - has been to play records for one another...

The Beatles, of course, belonged to everyone; that was their peculiarity. The Beach Boys by contrast suggested a more rarefied indulgence. To enter their domain full involved an initiation. Not that they were hidden: they were rather, at the outset, the very emblem of obviousness. Our journey consisted of finding, in the heart of that obviousness, what was most secret…

What had Brian been for us if not the sacred child, enduring loneliness for the sake of everyone else, commissioned to transmute isolation into beauty? It came down to the timbre of that sustained falsetto note, lingering on an unbearable (unbearably sad, unbearably pleasurable) awareness of unfulfillable longing. Stop time; bring back the lost world. Nothing else will assuage a nostalgia as big as the ocean...

Somewhere in his lonely room Brian was playing "Be My Baby" every day, in the same way that we once played "Caroline No" every day... Little by little it became possible to forget Brian and his brothers. There were a good many other thrills, more complex, more adult, more convincingly erotic, more authentically political, more profoundly exotic, more radically savage. We didn't need him anymore. If he appeared in dreams now, it was almost in the guise of an old school friend who had been slighted, his phone calls unreturned, his letters unanswered, the traditional reunion ignored. In one of the dreams the music emanated from a piano surrounded by a crowd. It took some time to wade through that mass on onlookers to get a look at the face of the piano player, Brian: dishevelled and utterly gone, beyond the beyond…

I remember once playing you a lovely Brian Wilson instrumental - a true rarity! - called "After the Game." After a moment of silence you remarked "I guess they lost." To children the thought of losing can be unbearable. Beauty - the achieved materialised beauty of a one-minute-and-fifty-eight-second B side - is a form of insurance against such loss. Perfect sounds are assembles into a defensive perimeter against raiders from the chaotic wastelands.

Saved by music. But what exactly can be saved?
The noise of the ocean. That exact roar: like sandpaper. And then the long tidal sigh."

from "The Lonely Sea" by Geoffrey O'Brien (in Sonata for Jukebox: pop music, memory and the imagined life).

...........................................................................................
Sometimes I think I have lived in that defensive perimeter for most of my life.

I used to write like this in a blog I had called Colour Bars. No analysis, just prose about songs that I loved and how they fit into my world. I deleted it because I think in a lot of ways I started to get embarrassed by it. Normal people don't write that sort of stuff. I read this article and it made my heart swell to know I am not the only one to have contemplated all of these things, big things, big memories, big dreams, from a two minute pop song. It is so much more than that. It is a deep breath in, crackling walkman by the pool, long twilight, phone serenades, the imagined life you wish for yourself, meagre teenage savings at the record store and, then, the long tidal sigh. The breath out.

What music means the most to you?

Bookshelf.

2009-10-29T02:55:51Z

Do you guys know I own about 30 Beach Boys books? That's a lot right?

My favourites are "Catch A Wave" by Peter Ames Carlin for an up-to-date, post-SMiLE(04) overview of the whole Beach Boys' saga with some neat stories I hadn't read elsewhere before. "Look! Listen! Vibrate! Smile!" by Dominic Priore (not pictured here, it's on loan to Marshall, the other PhD student at the BPM) because I can look through all the cut outs of old articles and interviews for hours. "Our Favourite Recording Sessions/Smile, Sun, Sand and Pet Sounds" by Stephen J McParland for the sheer randomness and attention to ridiculous details, and of course (I guess this goes without saying?), "The Beach Boys and The California Myth" by David Leaf for summing up the Beach Boys' story and situating them within their time, place and geography.

My least favourites would have to be the "official" biography "Wouldn't It Be Nice - My Own Story" by Brian Wilson (and Todd Gold). This book was almost completely ghost written and takes great chunks of text from "The California Myth" and also "Heroes and Villains" by Steven Gaines without actually acknowledging it. It also has Landy's voice all the way through it. The stories of Brian's childhood in this book are absolutely terrifying... even if only half of it is vaguely true it's still almost unbearable to read sometimes and upsets me greatly. By far the worst of these books is "The Beach Boys vs Beatlemania" by G. A. DeForest. I thought this would be an interesting read... an analysis of the two bands and how they worked together in 1960s culture, but instead it is actually the most poorly written book I have ever tried to read. I couldn’t get past the first 30 pages because it was completely riddled with inaccuracies, wrong dates, incorrect song titles, untrue facts (um hello, Dennis Wilson didn't listen to Wagner I can assure you, DeForest) and ended up sounding like an uneducated fan-boy putting shit on the Beatles for not being "as good as the Beach Boys". I mean let's face it, most people who like pop music are going to dig both bands so he completely alienated his audience (err, we have about 30 books on the Beatles too!). There is no competition, they're just different (and awesome). I would advise to stay well away from that one.

On what topic to do you have the most books in your shelf?

Things That I Love #1

2009-05-13T03:39:44Z

How freaking hip did Brian look during this period? Sweet fringe and big glasses hanging out by the tape machine. I know this has nothing to do with my studies, but sometimes it's nice to remember the little things that I really love about the Beach Boys. Maybe I can make this a series... the little things I still love about the Beach Boys that haven't been destroyed by picking their music apart. Oh I'm being dramatic, nothing has really been destroyed.

Okay:
Little Things I Love About the Beach Boys #1
How freaking hip Brian looked during the 1965-early 1967 period. Nerd glasses and fringe aside (always a sucker for those things!), he always looks so inspired, determined and focused. In the studio snaps of him around this time, you can just see all the creative stuff ticking over in his brain. When I lived at home and had my piano, I had a shot of Brian during this period in a frame on top of the lid and it really did inspire me every day.

Some junk about rhythmic feels....bup did-it.

2009-03-16T01:56:13Z

Hello Pet Studies,

I know it's been a long time between posts, but I think the main reason that has prevented me from updating more regularly is my reluctance to want to fill this thing with negativity. If I'm honest, the last few months (maybe more) have been very difficult for me in relation to my work. I have lost motivation, forgotten why I started, wondered if I had made the right decision in attempting this in the first place, trying to figure out if I am really "smart enough" to pull this off, battling with a lot of distractions (like having a lot of fun playing pop music with my friends)... I suspect this isn't any different to any other PhD experience, but it has been tough going and I've cried a lot of tears over it. I'm still not entirely sure of what I'm doing, whether this is the right thing to be doing right now, but I have to try and press on anyway...

At the moment, I'm trying to get through an analysis of the Beach Boys rhythmic feels. This has been quite a difficult task for me because rhythm has never been my strong point. My ace friend Shanon has been helping me go through a few things I've needed to transcribe and I'll try to include some of stuff we've talked through and he has charted. The following is just a little rant about rhythm... a quick little overview, a few songs I've been looking at, why rhythms are important to the Beach Boys, and so forth. Certainly not written out properly, this is just to get a few ideas out there. I have a lot to rant about so this is just the first in a few parts - Lj will only let me post so much at a time. Alrighty, part one.

A consideration of the rhythmic feels used in the Beach Boys’ music (a brief rant).

An introduction to the Beach Boys line-up during the early-to-mid 1960s.
It is important to note the changes in the Beach Boys’ line-up during 1962 and 1966 to better understand the development of their rhythmic practices. In 1962, the band consisted of brothers Brian (bass/piano), Carl (lead guitar) and Dennis Wilson (drums), Mike Love (vocals/saxophone) and Al Jardine (guitar). From late 1962 to early 1964, Jardine was replaced by David Marks, who was replaced again by Jardine in mid 1964.

For the first two Beach Boys releases (Surfin’ Safari and Sufin’ USA), the Beach Boys band played in the studio on the recordings. From 1963 onwards, the Beach Boys broke into two groups – the touring band which played live and promoted the music, and the studio group made up of Los Angeles session musicians affectionately referred to as the “Wrecking Crew”. Brian Wilson chose these musicians in particular as he had heard and seen them play on the productions of Phil Spector during the early 1960’s and was enamoured by the huge, layered sound he achieved. The influence of Phil Spector on Brian Wilson’s production style culminated with the instrumental timbre experiments on the 1965 Today! album, though a detailed exploration of the extent of Spector’s influence may be too large and tangential for a discussion of rhythmic feels.

After the touring band returned home from their commitments, they then sang over the backing track made by the Wrecking Crew (sometimes with the addition of Carl Wilson’s guitar) to complete the recording. From 1964 onwards, Brian Wilson stayed at home in Los Angeles to focus on writing and producing the Beach Boys albums and was replaced on the road by Glen Campbell and finally Bruce Johnston.

A brief overview of the role of the drums:
In the Beach Boys’ music, the drums are often not the most interesting rhythmic aspect of a song. In their early music (1962-63), drums consisted of a simple backbeat on kick, snare and high-hat (“Surfin’ USA”, “Little Deuce Coupe”). This was due to two reasons. Firstly, the limitations of Dennis Wilson’s technical ability on the drums and secondly, the style of the Beach Boys music during this period which mainly consisted of covers and songs in a surf-rock style. In a curious paradox, the role of the drums became less complex and less important over time, though the role of rhythm became more important.

From late 1963 to early 1965, the drums became even more simplistic; a simple back beat on kick and snare was used for both upbeat numbers (“Fun Fun Fun”, “Little Honda”) and ballads (“Don’t Worry Baby”, “Keep an Eye on Summer”). In most cases, the high hats were often replaced by a piano comping 8th note chords. Some unique cases may substitute jingle bells for high hats (“Drive-In”) or use high-hats to denote a particular section (the bridge section of “Warmth of the Sun”, for example). In 1965-1966 recordings, the comping 8th note piano figure was often doubled by organs or other keyboard sounds to add instrumental texture. Other elements, such as percussion, began to be more regularly included to replace parts usually played by the high hats and snare. For example, the use of woodblock in place of a snare during the verses of “Kiss Me Baby”; tambourines and woodblocks during the verses of “Let Him Run Wild”.

During the mid-1960s period, drums could often play no role in grounding the rhythmic feel of a song, instead playing small fills (often on snare or toms) between lyric lines or to denote a change in structural sections. This is most predominant on the Pet Sounds album, with many songs favouring the use of melodic and percussive instruments over a standard rock drum kit, for example, the use of tambourine, harpsichord and timpani in “You Still Believe in Me”; the use of syncopated tambourine and tom parts in “That’s Not Me”; the use of high hats only throughout “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)”; tambourine, timpani and bass harmonica during “I Know There’s an Answer”; muted bells and the sound of an empty water container struck through the verses of “Caroline, No”. It could be suggested that this point in time emphasised a change from more standard rock rhythmic practices (ie: the backbeat) to a focus more on musical form, structure and instrumental timbre.

It is sometimes useful to consider the Beach Boys’ rhythmic structure in (instrumental) layers:

5) Harmony parts (blow harmonies provide long sustained notes while rhythmically punctuated nonsense syllables* (bah-bah, doo-doo, dit-dit, etc) provide an additional rhythmic layer)
4) Incidental instruments (these include horns, flute, strings, other keyboard instruments, etc) which play typically melodic parts above these 3 layers.
3) Instrumental rhythm - Block 8th note chords by guitars and piano.
2) Bass (usually playing a walking or arpeggiated part)
1) Drums (usually cementing a basic backbeat)

I tend understand things better visually, so I colour-code these layers so I can gain a better understanding of what sounds fall where. As you can see, they're vaguely arranged like a "rainbow" - bottom layers are darker colours, higher layers are lighter. I have no idea if any of this stuff is very "academic" but it's one of the only ways I can try to make sense of so much information.

Lead Vox

Bg Vox

Other/Misc instruments – Vibes, xylophone, accordion

Horns – horn section, solo saxophone, French horn

Strings – String section, Harp

Organs – Hammond, Whirly, Misc (Vox, etc)

Pianos – Piano, toy piano, tack piano, harpsichord

Guitars – electric, acoustic, autoharp

Bass - electric, upright

Percussion – Handclaps, triangle, finger cymbal, woodblock, castanets, tambourine, chimes, clicks, jingle bells, sticks, timpani

Drums – Drum set, timpani

It must be noted that this rough outline is only applicable to Beach Boys records made before 1966. With the release of Pet Sounds, the intertwining of rhythmic layers is such that even standard melodic instruments such as guitars, pianos and bass, form part of a vague “rhythm section”. As such, each song requires individual consideration as no such framework can cover the broad range of rhythmic practices employed on Pet Sounds.

*I must admit my favourite rhythmic harmonies are "aum-dot-did-it" from "This Whole World" (which I unfortunately am not looking at in this study, but is a little GEM of a tune), "run run weeooo" from "Wouldn't it Be Nice" and "rah rah rah rah sis boom bah" from "Be True to Your School" - purely for its ridiculousness.

Oh gee, isn't this exciting? Hang on to your seats for part two!

pet_studies @ 2008-11-24T09:57:00

2008-11-23T22:57:52Z

An email about the conference I applied to next year in Liverpool:

Dear JADEY O'REGAN

We are writing to inform you that your paper, Endless Harmony; an interdisciplinary approach to defining the Beach Boys' sound, has been placed on a waitlist for the International Association for the Study of Popular Music's biennial conference, Popular Music Worlds, Popular Music Histories. We had an overwhelming response to our call for papers this year and had to make some very difficult decisions.

In the event that spaces become available following the withdrawal of accepted delegates, we may write to you again to see if you are still interested in presenting at the conference. Otherwise, we hope you will find another forum in which to present your material.

Freya Jarman
On behalf of Geoff Stahl
Chair, IASPM-International

I have been feeling particularly lost, unmotivated and uninspired about my research for weeks now, so despire the fact that my brain can see this for what it is (oh well, better luck next time), my heart has taken it completely the wrong way. With its stupid logic, I can warp this around as proof that my research is stupid and uninteresting. I think a bit of positivity would have gone a long way at the moment.

pet_studies @ 2008-08-15T17:46:00

2008-08-15T07:46:13Z

i just received this email regarding one of the abstracts i submitted a couple of months ago:

Dear presenter,

Thank you for submitting your abstract for the IASPM-ANZ conference "Stuck in the Middle: The Mainstream and its Discontents."

The organising committee is pleased to advise that your abstract has been accepted. Please note that, except for panels, all paper presentations should be of 30mins duration (20mins presentation and 10mins question time).

Please respond to this letter with an email indicating your intention to participate in the conference (email: g.carfoot@griffith.edu.au). You will be sent a further email when registration details are available very shortly.

Please also ensure that your IASPM-ANZ membership is up to date (for further details on membership, see the following link: http://iaspm.org.au/). Proof of membership may be required at the beginning of the conference.

Note that information on the conference, including updated accommodation options, is available at the following website: http://iaspm.org.au/2008/conf/

If you have any other questions, concerns or requests, feel free to contact us at any time by email. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in Brisbane in November.

Yours sincerely
Andy Bennett, Sarah Baker and Gavin Carfoot

dear PRESENTER. that's me! that is kind of neat...it will be my first conference presentation and i suspect i need all the practice i can get. it also reminds me that i really need to sign up for membership of the IASPM. i wasn't quite as worried about this particular presentation, the one i am really worried about (and hoping will come through okay) is the conference in Liverpool next year. i probably still have somewhere between now and november to wait until i know but i mostly try to put it out of my mind.

in fact i have to put all of this out of my mind because i need 4500 words written by this time next week. fuck fuck fuck.

a leaf on a windy day

2008-07-29T04:34:58Z

i am sure feeling overwhelmed with my work at the moment.

on friday i "finished up" the first part of my musical analysis. this included charting the structure of each song from 8 albums (these are all colour-coded to find patterns), instrumentation (a big chart that lists every instrument playing and what it is doing), tempo, time signature and track times for each song, chord charts for each song, a chart listing the types of harmony parts used in each song and the beginnings of a lyrical analysis, dividing all songs into 'most common" themes. i have decided to not include 'pet sounds' in this, purely because it is so much more complicated than the other records and sometimes doesn't even fit the charts i've worked out so far. 'pet sounds' will have to be a work in progress, i think. it's taken a bit of the pressure off too, because i've been putting that album off for months due to just being too scared to work on it. i'm not sure if that's because it's just REALLY HARD, or because i'm torn about tearing apart my favourite record. i can't really tell, but if it's the latter, i better get over that pretty soon.

i printed all of my charts out this morning and filed them all away so i can use them properly when it comes time to make sense of all this data. i thought i would be more impressed but all i could think was 'is this it?' - this has been 8 months (+) work and it only really amounts to a couple of ring binders of charts and letters and numbers. i know that i HAVE done work, just when it's all put together, it doesn't really seem like it. i'd paste some of it in here but the tables are so large, lj can't handle the code.

i am really struggling through things lately...struggling for motivation, mostly. i really, really need a PROPER break, but i can't take one until early september, after my confirmation at the end of august. until then, i have so much work to do that i often feel i don't know where to start. well, i suppose i do what needs to be done, but trying to organise it in my head is really confusing at the moment. i think in my head i thought by my second year i'd be feeling more comfortable with being a phd student, i'd feel more at ease with what i can do, what i have to do, and i'd feel more together with it. shouldn't second year be easier than the first? the more time goes on, i realise that moment probably isn't going to come. i understand this is my own fault, but damn, i really wanted to be over the random bouts of "maybe this was a stupid idea afterall, what am i doing! why am i doing this at 24 when i should be blowing all my savings on roadtripping around the US like i want to? why is everyone i know getting married or engaged or buying houses and having babies and i am still a student living below the poverty line?" - i have really hit a weird slump. argh, i really need some perspective.

i don't mean to sound ungrateful, i am lucky to do what i am doing, i'm lucky to have the opportunity so young, but oh hell, it's just so hard sometimes.

now that i've finished that data collecting, i have to start trying to find patterns, traits or other weird/interesting things in the numbers and charts. i am thinking of taking donna's advice and taking tomorrow off and come back to the charts on thursday... maybe i just need some space from them to be able to see what's actually in front of me, instead of all of the data blurring into one big puddle.

your summer dream

2008-07-02T05:46:55Z

----- Original Message -----
From: "IASPM 2009 Conference" <iaspm2009@iaspm.net>
To: That girl who has been way too stressed out this week.
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 6:40 PM
Subject: IASPM Conference Abstract Receipt

Thank you for sending us your abstract for the IASPM conference conference in Liverpool, to be held from July 13-17, 2009. Please note that we will notify you no later than November 1, 2008 as to your acceptance.

Please do not hesitate to contact the convenor of your stream if you have any questions.

Best regards,

The IASPM Executive.

...........................................................

thank gawd IT'S OVER.
for now.

comic.

2008-06-17T22:48:15Z

i could pretty much post every phdcomic on my blog, but this one pretty much sums up my week already.

ninety!

2008-06-16T07:45:40Z

here is an updated list of how many songs i have worked out charts for so far:

1) surfin' safari
2) county fair
3) ten little indians
4) chug-a-lug
5) little girl (you're my miss america)
6) 409
7) surfin'
8) heads you win, tails i lose
9) summertime blues
10) cuckoo clock
11) moon dawg
12) the shift
13) surfin' USA
14) farmer's daughter
15) misirlou
16) stoked
17) lonely sea
18) shut down
19) noble surfer
20) honky tonk
21) lana
22) surf jam
23) let's go trippin'
24) finders keepers
25) surfer girl
26) catch a wave
27) the surfer moon
28) south bay surfer
29) rocking surfer
30) little deuce coupe
31) in my room
32) hawaii
33) surfers rule
34) our car club
35) your summer dream
36) boogie woodie
37) ballad of ole' betsy
38) be true to your school
39) car crazy cutie
40) cherry cherry coupe
41) spirit of america
42) no-go showboat
43) a young man is gone (this is a work in progress)
44) custom machine
45) fun fun fun
46) don't worry baby
47) in the parkin' lot
48) the warmth of the sun
49) this car of mine
50) why do fools fall in love?
51) pom pom play girl
52) keep an eye on summer
53) shut down part II
54) louie louie
55) i get around
56) all summer long
57) hushabye
58) little honda
59) we'll run away
60) carl's big chance
61) wendy
62) do you remember?
63) girls on the beach
64) drive in
65) don't back down
66) do you wanna dance
67) good to my baby
68) don't hurt my little sister
69) when i grow up (to be a man)
70) help me ronda
71) dance dance dance
72) please let me wonder
73) i'm so young
74) kiss me baby
75) she knows me too well
76) in the back of my mind
77) the girl from new york city
78) amusement parks USA
79) then i kissed her
80) salt lake city
81) girl don't tell me
82) help me rHonda
83) california girls
84) let him run wild
85) you're so good to me
86) summer means new love
87) i'm bugged at my old man
88) and your dream comes true
89) wouldn't it be nice
90) sloop john b

when i look at it like that, it almost seems like i've done some WORK!

won't last forever, it's kind of sad.

2008-06-16T06:08:47Z

well, here i am at the end of my first week back to work. i took last week off entirely and did my best to have a guilt free break. as is usual with these things, it wasn't much of a "holiday" - it was mostly filled with catching up on odd jobs and practicing for gigs/rehearsals....but i did buy an excellent polka dot dress on a shopping afternoon and i did spent a couple of days up in the blue mountains. unfortunately it rained the whole time and everywhere was mostly covered with fog, and if not fog, then very icy winds, but tim and i made the most of it. we had big b+b breakfasts and ate some lovely dinners and did some wandering around second hand bookstores and record stores in the mountains for a whole day and had hot chocolates, watched music documentaries by our tiny fireplace...it was nice. i also managed to find a couple of gems (a copy of 'on record' for $15 and 'understanding popular music' by roy shuker for cheaps).

to start this week back at work, i even bought a sweet new office chair... a proper one, so i don't keep ruining my shoulders all the time. surely all of that should make me a lot more productive....right?

well, i guess it has. i have had an okay week work wise, i have made a lot of lists and tried to organise my time. sometimes "organising" can just be an excuse for procrastination but i think i have been doing useful organising, working out what needs to be done by what times. in fact, i'm trying to embrace google calendar and this week have tried to plan out almost every part of the day by forcing myself to switch to different tasks. this seems totally pedantic but lately i've been having a lot of trouble concentrating and if i don't write myself one of these things, my tendency is to get distracted, read books, listen to unrelated music, play the piano, see what's on oprah(!), anything but actually do my work.

this looks like all kinds of lame, but it's actually quite refreshing to have a little box pop up every couple of hours that says "change to something else now!" - i've actually been working for entire days without getting too sidetracked, which is a pretty big improvement for me.

at the moment, i am working on 3 different things:

1) instrumentation.
now that i have collected a number of sea of tunes bootlegs, i am going back through my tables on instrumentation (these first ones are very simple and have missed SO MANY INSTRUMENTS) and redoing things in excel. this process is proving to be the most interesting so far as i've finding all sorts of ideas, tricks, patterns and questions coming out of this process. i tried to include one of my big tables but it is too large for one pet studies post (no, really, it won't let me post it). basically in one column i have the track name, the next is the list of instruments, and the third is a description of what that instrument is doing (when it enters, what it sounds like, what part it plays, etc). this is a HUGE job.

this week i have been working on the Today! record. unlike most of the bootlegs which have 1-4 discs, the Today! sessions have 8 discs for me to trawl though. two of these discs are devoted entirely to one song each - "please let me wonder" and "when i grow up (to be a man)", which is bittersweet for me as they happened to be my favourite two tracks from Today! - it's good because i get to listen and learn about them in an in depth way, but also quite emotionally draining because they're songs that really get to me on a bunch of different levels, the latter one especially. it's probably in my TOP 5 (TOP 6 maybe...?) beach boys songs and for some reason makes me want to cry every time i hear it. something about brian's falsetto singing "will i love my wife for the rest of my life, when i grow up to be a man? it won't last forever, it's kind of sad"... it just rips me apart. after listening to 40 takes of this song, i was absolutely sobbing and walked into the living room and said to tim 'i can't take this anymore!'... he just kind of laughed and said that it was just proof that i'm doing what i'm meant to be doing.

i just felt like a bit embarrassed.
heaven help me when i get to "god only knows".

i digress... in any case, some of these songs have up to 15 instruments in them (and that's counting saxes, trumpets and trombones as "horns" and violins, cellos, etc as "strings") so it's pretty much been doing my head in.

2) writing up notes from my musical studies
then next step after this (which i have already started) is to write up a list of organised notes and questions about what has come up in my musical analysis. after that, i have to turn those notes into the basis of my confirmation presentation at the end of august. yikes.

3) abstract for IASPM 2009
i am still trying to get my head together to write a 250 word (yes, ONLY 250 and i'm struggling, hell!) abstract to submit to the IASPM conference by july 1st. the 2009 conference is in LIVERPOOL (yes, UK liverpool, the sydney people i know ask me "liverpool? why would they have it all the way out there?") so i'm totally desperate to go. can you imagine all the sweet beatles junk i could take in? also, being able to listen to so many papers on pop music in one place and meeting lots of people i read about! i have to actually SUBMIT something first so i'm getting ahead of myself. my problem is that i'm writing an abstract for a paper than doesn't actually exist. it has to exist in a year's time... so, uhm, thinking of exactly what i will be able to say in a year's time is a good exercise, i guess, but also kind of difficult.

to help this a bit, last week tim and i recorded a chat on my ipod where he asked me a few questions about things and got me ranting. i thought most of what i would say would be pointless and tangential but playing it back i had a lot of neat ideas i didn't even realise i had. transcribing an hour's worth of chatting is tough work though! phew! he is a pretty excellent helper though.

.........
since this post has taken days to get around to finishing, on the weekend tim and i drove past an old building that said BOOK SALE! on the front of it. we decided to stop and check it out, and it turned out to be an academic remainders book sale and i picked up david brackett's "interpreting popular music" for $13! no freaking way! i've had a lot of luck with books lately, it was worth the stop for that alone, i dig brackett a lot.

in other great news, i've had more good chats with probyn over emails, they make me HAPPY every time they come into my inbox. i also sent nelson an email the other day too, just keeping in touch and asking if he wouldn't mind helping out with some percussion questions, to which he wrote:

"Hey Jadey!!,

I'd love to help any way I can. In fact, I'll ask a few of the others any questions you have if you'd like. Just make a complete and very detailed list and I'll see what I can do. Hell, I'll even ask Brian stuff...though I'm not sure how he'll react. Most likely very positively I think.. I can try. It won't hurt. Many in the band know so very much more than I so please... feel free to ask anything and I'll reach the proper party..... who knows best yea??? Be free and comfortable with any questions.

Stay In Touch, Nelson"

pretty freaking cool for a fangirl like me. ("oh, i'll just ask brian if you like" - OH OKAY!) when i left from work at jb hifi (bundall) that rainy wednesday night in 2002 and drove up to the entertainment centre to see brian wilson + band play "pet sounds" all the way through for the first time, i certainly didn't imagine that 6 years later i would be emailing back and forth with them every couple of days chatting about the beach boys and my PHD. you really can't ever tell how things will work out. thinking about that night now seems like a whole lifetime ago.

okay, enough nostalgia!

a rock in a landslide.

2008-05-19T01:00:21Z

HELLO NEGATIVITY!
i feel like i am having a rotten start to the week already. i was sure that after a break over the weekend i would be ready to tackle all the things i have to get done this week but i feel totally wrung out about it and overwhelmed by the task ahead of me. instead of being sensible about feeling this way, i usually just get the shits with myself about it and end up feeling worse. i am trying to think of other things i need to work on (finishing off some other tables, going back over my instrumentation charts after downloading a lot of other 'unsurpassed masters', changing a few time signatures around - 6/8 -12/8 etc) so that i can at least be on the way to finishing things up without actually having to go back to chord progressions again, at least for today... but even that seems like a pain at the moment and i'm having to drrrrrag myself in front of the computer to do it. it's not that i'm sick of the music, i just feel like i've run out of steam. discounting a couple of days here and there for being sick, i guess i haven't taken a break since christmas time. i think tim and i are both dying for a few days off, tim even more than me, i suspect...he's had it a lot harder than i have.

ohhhh wouldn't it be nice if i were smarter, then this wouldn't have to take so long...etc.

i was always going to have good and bad days, good and bad weeks, good and bad months, even... but i know that i mostly just have to quit whinging and get my shit together already. it's may and i when i look back at the work i've done this year it looks like i've done absolutely nothing. 5 months work and all i have to show for it is a bunch of charts and tables in a 2-ring binder? kashgdkjhgkasdhjfkuytaksuytdkuyatskydt. i need to stop being so hard on myself today. the end.

don't back down

2008-05-14T04:33:30Z

after a few weeks of marking i am finally back to working on my own studies. at the time, the break from it was good, but by last week i was really missing being able to work on my own stuff. marking, though it is draining sometimes, is often a good thing too, as i've had to spend a lot of time reading other people's essay and figuring out what is wrong (or right!) with them. i feel like this is always good practice for writing up my own work. all this aside, now that the clouds have cleared and i can get back to work, i almost feel a bit stuck, so here i am, trying to get myself organised again.

what have i got left to do on my musical analysis (part 1)?
well, i have written up and printed out all of my charts up until PET SOUNDS...which is all i have left in relation to chord progressions. i've been dreading this from the beginning for a variety of reasons (mostly because it will just be really hard!) but i know i just have to get it done (and not be afraid/feel stupid to ask for help (probyn!) when i need it).

after i finish that, i need to go back and fix up a few little bits and pieces (tempo/time sigs and also instrumentation) before it's time to tie up this particular section. this is both good and bad news - good because i can move onto something new, but bad in some ways because i actually have to start WRITING after this.

what do i need to start writing?
to start with, i need to start writing up what i have found in my basic analysis - what did i do (i analysed some basic musical structures - tempo, time and key sigs, chord progressions, instrumentation, some lyrics/themes), how did i do it? (er, by sitting at the piano a lot!) and what has come out of it. the last part will obviously be the tricky part, listing all of the interesting things i have noticed in the music (hoping i can remember all of them) that might lead to other things, but also trying to figure out some research questions from this - all the "whys" and "hows". this should probably seem a bit exciting but i'm mostly feeling a bit apprehensive about it. i think i'm a bit nervous about actually "officially" putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard!) in my phd. until this point, i have managed to avoid attempting this due to having this blog and also starting on my analysis first (okay, so it's technically a "literature review" but with records and not books)... but pretty soon i will have to get started and i'd be lying if i said i wasn't a bit anxious about it.

what a stupid thing to be anxious about WRITING doing a PHD! what was i thinking? i don't think i am anxious about writing in general (i know what i'm getting myself into) it's more just making the start. none of what i write now will probably end up in my paper anyway, and if it does, it will look and read completely differently, it's just the STARTING. i need to really keep my stupid self esteem in check (ha ha!) so i don't get into my stupid habit of deleting everything after i write it. (tim, please keep an eye on me with this, please? - see? asking for help!).

it is only after i finish this part that i can really meet back up with donna and make a plan of where to go next, which is basically setting up my methodology. hopefully that will be on the way before my confirmation of canditure in late august. everyone says i shouldn't flip out about it, but as if i'm not going to. i think after august i will start to feel a bit more together with things - i will hopefully have got a lot of the groundwork out of the way, hopefully be allowed to continue and then get on with planning the rest of my paper. i can hardly believe i'm almost a year and a half into this. when i think about the phone call i had with my mum when the letter arrived telling me i had been accepted (it was mailed to her address and she read it on the phone)...it really doesn't seem like that long at all, maybe 6 months? goddamn time flies.

i get a lot of good ideas by talking them out, so if any of you want to strike up a conversation about the beach boys and get me rolling, i'm likely to rant out a bunch of ideas i haven't even realised yet.