Aka Saturday 10th November 2018
Brought the latest issue of 'Electronic Sound', which
is a ‘A Clockwork Orange’ special/focused and has articles from Kris Needs about his Secret Knowledge band and one about the making of/genesis
of Bauhaus’s ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’.
The ‘A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack’ is an odd one, it’s got proto
IDM electronic tracks (the main theme was mainstay intro of my weirdo electronic
mixtapes), Moog reworkings of classical music and light hearted ‘pop’ songs (‘I Want To Marry A Lighthouse Keeper’ and ‘Singin' In The Rain’). In more general
terms A Clockwork Orange is strange one, the book is really well written, has a
great invented language/slang in 'Nadsat', and tackles some heavy themes, but it
also has some very disturbing scenes, which are all amplifies in the film, plus
you have the stylishness brought by Stanley Kubrick, for example the uniforms
worn by the gangs look great, the milk bar looks fantastic, etc., but as I
mentioned this also amplifies the nastiness and almost makes the viewer compliant
in their crimes. I think this is particularly true of the rape scene as there
is no escaping it’s vileness. Then there’s what happened outside the film and the
copycat violence, which led to the film being removed from British cinemas and not being released on video/DVD until Stanley Kubrick had passed away.
And on a happier note, Wendy Carlos was the first trans
person I had heard off who wasn’t involved in sex work. Previously, whenever I
heard/saw/read about trans women it was always in a titillating/sniggering context,
as strange, exotic ‘lady boys’ and not as normal people, but Wendy Carlos was
presented as just being Wendy, a composer, with little/less othering of her.
Which seems really weird in today’s climate, where there is better and more understanding
that trans people are just people, not exotic or weird others (not withstanding
that today those critical of trans people are very vocal and loud).
…I also babysat my nephew and helped him tidy his room, it
was pretty messy, but what kids room isn’t!…
…I also finished my personal statement, it took a bit longer
to get in the right frame of mind to finish it, but once I got in the zone it
came (relativity) easily (maybe I should wait to see how it goes down with the
panel first!). How I just need to proof it, which will be best done tomorrow
with fresh eyes, and then cut and paste it into the online form…
…and I did the G2 Crossword:
…and we’re still upswinging with today’s crossword as I only
needed to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25), I should have
gotten ‘pronto’ from ‘promptly’ and
‘duct’ from ‘conduit for a fluid’, but I got stuck on pipes and thought
that ducts were for air, but as soon as I saw the answer I remembered
tear-ducts!, but I did learn that ‘terpsichorean’ means ‘relating to dance’. I
also saw that the completed crossword seems to have a message about a ‘…Shadow
Cabinet middling hero…’, who could that be?!?!?
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