Redeem the Time

I found this article to be fascinating on many levels. I’ll just let it speak for itself:

It’s not easy to determine where and how Cookie Monster singing actually began. Early death-metal bands such as Death and Morbid Angel that emerged from Florida in the mid-’80s helped create the musical template that characterized the blasting sound as well as that of its Satan- and occult-obsessed sibling, black metal: fast, relentless drumming often featuring two bass drums; grinding, rapid-fire chording on guitars; squealing guitar solos; muted electric bass; unexpected sudden tempo changes; and a sense of theatricality that’s inevitably threatening–”a horror film put to music” is how Monte Conner, a vice president at Roadrunner Records, sees it.

But while the vocals in early death metal are low, raspy and aggressive, not unlike the vocals by, say, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, that extreme degree of Cookieness is missing.

To be a true Cookie Monster vocal, said Mr. Conner, who signed some of the subgenre’s biggest bands, including Sepultura and Fear Factory, “it’s got to be really, really guttural. It should sound like they’re gargling glass.”

UPDATE I
Speaking of satanic music, my old post on Depeche Mode and John the Revelator has some comments worth reading.

UPDATE II
I wanted to quote the “gargling glass” bit above because it is very similar to a point the shulamite made in an old post quoting Dante on “the song of the sullen” in hell:

“This canticle they gargle in their throats,

as if they sang, unable to speak whole words”

When I put pictures in my posts I always include a link to where I got them. There are a number of good sites out there—this one is a favorite as it presents various religious paintings and so forth in accordance with what part of Sacred Scripture they describe. Thought I’d do my part to throw a little positive Beauty out to you all.

Matthew Lickona returns from a brief blogging hiatus and, in a fit of brilliance, is inspired by the New York Times to write a show tune about full frontal male nudity.

I really wish it was possible to go to the theater these days and actually enjoy the awesome experience of the ancient art form, but a few seconds gaze at even the titles of most plays is enough to turn one off, so to speak. When the “artists” of our time think that male genitalia adds an important element to theater, its time to rethink things.

Actually, its not time to “rethink” anything, because, of course, hardly anyone ever goes to plays anymore, no doubt partly because most rational people don’t enjoy these enlightened “artist’s” productions. This is probably not so much because of moral concerns, although that is certainly part of it, as it is the plain old ugliness and stupidity of so much of the dreck being passed off as art.

And here’s an unsolicited piece of advice for you playwrights and all manner of other aspiring artists out there: if you want to be active in politics through your art by making political statements in your art—whether they are about men and women’s reproductive organs (snicker, snicker) or wars or whatever—please do us all a favor and actually go into politics instead of further ruining your already shoddy art. You are free to do this in our regime, so go right ahead—change your vocation and jump in to political activism before we start treating you like the ancient Romans treated actors.

In the meantime, could you tell us more cool stories? Please? This approach will have the added benefit of an increased chance of more money, fame and popularity for you, as well as a more subtle and powerful influence on the regime than you have with your current pathetic attempts at political “statements” wrapped in thin, crappy plots.