Daily Slow Chat

3 comments

1. Tórshavn,10° at 6.40am but not raining!

   Today I’m going to take a bus up to a more northern island,as far as Klaksvik, and then do some hiking from there.

   These two islands are connected by undersea tunnels.Most of the Far Oer you still need to take a ferry though.

   I found a (Danish?) biscuit that I never had before, good for breakfast with coffee… it’s called ‘Orangestanger’.Very good indeed!

2. There’s a comic artist I follow on DA who draws some pretty incredible fantasy stuff. I recently discovered that he also has a very successful YouTube channel (though he doesn’t have many videos, but I guess he already had a decent following elsewhere) where he posts short animations, such as my favorite [The Sharpest Blade Ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRDj7fJkI4c). Highly recommended.

   There’s an art of drawing poofy clouds with ink that I just don’t seem to master. It seems so simple. [Here’s an example](https://www.deviantart.com/ashpwright/art/Strange-Worlds-1097734480) from the artist I mentioned, and here’s one from my favorite illustration artists Franklin Booth, with the amazing title [Heavenly Hills of Holland](http://outsidelogic.com/franklinbooth/FranklinBooth-Windmill-full.jpg). They make it look so light and convincing with minimal amount of work, and mine just look clunky. I need more practice or talent… or both.

3. I started reading a book about Finnish tango as a cultural sign in the semiotics of culture point of view, and in the prologue there was the following paragraph:

   >*I would like to express my gratitude to the Finnish popular music lyricists in honour of their valuable contribution to the culture of ordinary people, “the masses”. They have given people an opportunity to experience the touch of poetry that deals with life’s great themes: love and longing, as seen through Finnish eyes and within the context of Finnish or Finland-Swedish culture, and, not least, through the Finnish and Swedish languages, in the bilingual Finland, so essential to the national identity.* ***The work of popular music lyricists is seldom honoured with grants, even though they have been interpreters of the deepest states of the human mind.*** *The names include* [long list of names]*, and many others. In the imported cultural phenomenon tango they have created lyrics which reflect the Finnish soul, identity, and mentality*

   This is from the late 90s. I don’t know if it’s true, but I feel like a more academic appreciation for popular culture has increased since this has been written. I read one quarter yearly music theory journal and it seems to have a lot more articles about pop music than when I first started reading it. The most recent issue has an article titled “Cueing” Your Playlist: Texture and Teleology in Post-Millennial Pop, the one before that had a deep analysis on so called “bedroom pop voice”, last year there was a fascinating article about something called prosodic dissonance in contemporary pop, et cetera.

   If my observation that this has increased is indeed true, I wonder why that is? It makes sense to look into it more carefully, because these types artists do seem to be more true interpreters of your mindsets as a whole. But is it something that people have just woken up to, perhaps a natural development from new capitalism and the commoditisation of art where showing a more diverse interest in different styles is a type of show of wealth and one’s worth?

   And since what we now generally consider high-brow, opera, theatre, even tango to some extent, was once very common and banal, will pop become more high-brow as well in our eyes eventually? Like The Beatles and Beyoncé will be viewed as high culture while TikTok brainrot is not. And then at some point people will start to do very in depth analysis on that brainrot and the cycle continues.