There’s a New Band in Town, But You Can’t Get the Sound from a Story in a Magazine

Oh wait.

Enjoy, average teen.

Your Averted Gaze Confirms

A song of mine called “Jut” from a few years back. More here.

The Food of Art

On last week’s Thinking Unenslaved podcast, we considered raising for discussion the topic of religion in the arts, and what might become of the arts if religion were not the force it is in our society and culture. We wound up not getting around to it, though I expect we probably will. Regardless, I had written up a few paragraphs to get the conversation started, and I thought I’d post them here. Remember, it’s intended to be the beginning of a conversation, not a complete thesis. But here you go.

A common form of fretting done by theists and atheists alike concerns anxiety over whether a religion-free society would be capable of producing great works of art, music, poetry, etc. Would we have Bach or Michelangelo without Christianity?

The question posed by our host before we began tonight was, “How would future societies replace the creative energies of religion in the Arts?” It presumes that a large enough percentage of quality art today is inspired by or derived from religious belief, and that its absence, in a vacuum, would leave a significant hole in our society’s cultural life, which I think it almost certainly not the case. Particularly if we’re talking not about less trite or less propagandistic art and media, but rather the kind of art that makes lives richer in the broadest sense. My confident guess would be that the vast majority of quality art and culture is produced without religion ever coming into the picture.

There were almost certainly times in human history when religion was a driving force behind wonderful visual art and music that will weather the centuries. But I don’t think this is so today.

But even if we grant the premise, that a lack of religious influence and inspiration would leave a great vacuum in our artistic and cultural life, I believe that vacuum is easily filled.

What we’re really talking about when we worry over this question is; what could possibly move the human heart to the degree that the wonder over the supernatural does? My answer: Plenty. First, consider the things that are already in place that move the human heart: love in all its forms (romantic, familial, etc.), idealism and deep belief in a cause, and despair, just to name a few.

But of course, these are not necessarily based on awe over something greater than oneself (but can be, I suppose), so the hole left by hypothetically-absent religion must be filled by something that satisfies that need. Well, lucky for the arts, humans are very small in the grand scheme of things. Earth is, too, as is our sun, our galaxy, and possibly even our universe. There is so much to ponder, so much to imagine when it comes to the workings of the cosmos and our place within it — and that encompasses the positive connotations of “wonder” as well as the feelings of insignificance or alienation. Even with no religion, the human heart cannot help but be stirred by such images, concepts, and questions.

And we need not even be so lofty: why not be awed by the ecosystem of our planet, the fact that civilization lumbers on despite our species’ missteps and greed, the potential for us as individuals and as a global society, the bonds of family and community. This just scratches the surface, but the point is, how can the artistic soul NOT be moved by such thoughts? How can the creative person NOT weigh in or react? If you ask me, these ideas are more full of wonder than any stories about fictional celestial superheroes and their meddlings in our lives.

So would we have Bach or Michelangelo without Christianity? Of course. Because artistic genius will not stay hungry. It will find its food of awe and wonder wherever it lies.

Good Riddance, CDs

A reader of the Daily Dish on why the alleged ruination of the LP album format by iTunes is not something to feel too badly about:

Buying a physical album is not a nostalgic thing for me – seeing that piece of crap CD that I wasted $15 on is frustrating, not romantic.

I spent almost all of my disposable income on CDs when I was in my teens. Oh, how I wish I had 90% of that money back. How many of those albums do I listen to anymore? How many did I actually listen to then? What a bloody ripoff that whole enterprise was. And is.

In Case I Ever Make Another Album . . .

. . . this might have to be its cover.

Designed in about five minutes by Rin Barton (who Object readers last met here). I love it. I think it looks like an album of electronic instrumentals, which I’d actually like to make — here’s one example.

You can see more of Rin’s fake covers (#fakealbumcovers) on her Twitter feed.

Not as Cool as Magnets

A fucking miracle.

Jon Ronson of the Guardian interviewed Insane Clown Posse, who surprised many when they revealed they were secretly Evangelical Christians and fiercely anti-science. Some highlights that reveal the depth of their thinking.

“A giraffe is a fucking miracle. It has a dinosaur-like neck. It’s yellow. Yeah, technically an elephant is not a miracle. Technically . . . Have you ever stood next to an elephant, my friend?” asks Violent J. “A fucking elephant is a miracle. If people can’t see a fucking miracle in a fucking elephant, then life must suck for them, because an elephant is a fucking miracle. So is a giraffe.”

. . .

“Gravity’s cool,” Violent J says, “but not as cool as magnets.”

. . .

“So all those unpleasant characters in the songs,” I [Ronson] ask, “like the narrator in ‘I Stuck Her With My Wang,’ they’re examples of people you shouldn’t be?”

“Huh?” Violent J says.

“Well, it’s very unpleasant,” I say. “‘I stuck her with my wang. She hit me in the balls. I grabbed her by her neck. And I bounced her off the walls. She said it was an accident and then apologised. But I still took my elbow and blackened both her eyes.’ That’s clearly a song about domestic violence. So your Christian message is… don’t be like that man?”

“Huh?” Violent J repeats, mystified.

He’s not the only one.

Selfless and Paid Forward

Rin Barton, she of One-Take Shakespeare fame, has done me an honor: she’s covered one of my songs! From my 2004 album Paul is Making Me Nervous, this is Rin’s cover of “Selfless.” It’s lovely, and I’m deeply flattered. Check it out.

Rin is a former student-of-sorts of mine from when I worked at the American Shakespeare Center and directed her in a Young Company production of As You Like It (she was a most excellent Rosalind). You can follow her frequent and often-bizarre tweets here.

And here’s my original version of “Selfless.”

Selfless by Paul Fidalgo

More Music from the Fidalgo Archives

Okay, in that last post, I could understand that all but about ten people in the world would be all like, “WTF was that?” Fine. Good.

So while we’re delving back into the old Paul musical archives, I thought I’d start trotting out a couple tracks that have never seen the light of day, but maybe ought to.

This song began as the closing song for a production of Love’s Labour’s Lost, and a few years later I took my tune for Shakespeare’s words, and gave it my own lyric. This is a demo version I recorded in 2005, and it actually holds up pretty well. I’d be excited to hear how this came out in a nice, polished version with full instrumentation and production.

Either way, it’s a sweet ditty. Enjoy “Renew.”

More soon.

The Food of Love, When it Was Still Baking

In 2004, as a member of American Shakespeare Center‘s Ripe with Mischief troupe, troupe members Chris Seiler, Freddy Arsenault and I penned a tune for the opening of our production of Twelfth Night that I haven’t played (or heard) since 2005. Going through some very old Garageband files, I came upon some tracks that we made simply experimenting on assembling the song. This is for curiosity’s sake only, but for my fellow Ripe with Mischief comrades who might listen, make sure you get all the way to the end. I did, and I almost started bawling in nostalgia and pride.

Better Half, in Progress (click this to listen)

Soon, I’ll have the actual song fully recorded, arranged and produced, and I’ll post it here. I don’t know when, but I will.

Musical Meta-Jut

As I noted in a previous post, I am trying to force myself back into writing and performing more music. I began with a quickly-slapped-together version of a Robyn Hitchcock song, just to get me started. Then I recorded an equally-slapdash version of one of my own songs, “Jut,” but never posted it here.

But now I will because I found a really cool thing that iMovie ’09 does, and I had no idea, which is the ability to lay another piece of video–audio intact–over the main footage. So, while this is not my ideal performance-quality rendition of one of my songs (not to mention the choppiness of some of the overlaid video recorded with Photo Booth), it’s a fun experiment in what I might be able to do with far more polish down the road. So, just for fun, here’s “Jut.”