Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2019)

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AfterHours



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  • #21
  • Posted: 01/28/2018 00:42
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Amirkhosro wrote:
What's up man!

Glad to see you spending time with Songs from the Hill/Tablet. It made wonder, what do you make of that album? And what's your favorite side, the short songs or Tablet?


Hey! Good to see you around!

Songs from the Hill/Tablet is stunning lieder, a lonely theater of monologues, daydreams, imaginings, granting a magical life (like childhood) to the nature around one, an array of characters stemming from a single soul. Tablet is an astonishing work of repetitive, vocal contrapuntal minimalism and choral polyrhythms, that traverses much psychology, an inward theater of the soul, pouring out, expanding, possessed, shamanistic. Tablet is the superior half for me.

I need to get more acclimated to the work before I would say much more than that. My 8.3 rating is pretty tentative too, and could easily be different with more familiarity. Ive still only listened to it 3 times. So much to do and hear...

Do you have any plans to drop in more often, post lists/logs/updates, discuss, and so forth?
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AfterHours



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  • #22
  • Posted: 01/30/2018 00:20
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New week rolling out. Rock music now dominating my time. Its always fascinating and extremely rewarding to jump between Rock/Classical/Jazz (and offshoots). Im mainly revisiting various Rock albums at varying ratings points (primarily 7.8-8.2), because (a) I f-ing love these albums, and (b) I'm re-acclimating myself to the intracacies and differential in qualitative consistency/peaks between ratings before I dive into taking on some more new ones, and also for when I get back to Classical or Jazz, Ill have this even more accurately in mind, thus making those ratings ever more reliable (c) correcting ratings/rankings where needed (d) Im a music/art nerd/perfectionist.

As always, the listed log itself is on the first page, usually updated daily: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=19621
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  • #23
  • Posted: 02/07/2018 07:40
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New week rolling out... Aside from some time spent revisiting The Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo's Last Judgement & Ceiling), I am still heavily consumed by Rock and a bit of Jazz. Supersilent's 6, in partcular, has blown me away this week. Even considered upgrading it to 8.3/10. I definitely think Scaruffi's rating (7.5/10) is a little low and I would be surprised if he doesnt upgrade to 8/10 whenever he gets around to revisiting it. Also, strongly considering upgrading Joanna Newsom's Ys to 8.3+, maybe even 8.8/10 ... which is pretty much an annual affair for me (as some of my listology buds may recall that might read this... Laughing ). ... And ... damn, Sticky Fingers might be worthy of 7.8+ (in its heyday a few years ago I actually had it as high as 8.9/10 ... seriously). A truly extraordinary album that doesn't seem that far behind Exile to me, like a 7/10 (Scaruffi's rating) would indicate (though maybe I should revisit Exile to be sure...). Anyway, I have it at 7.4 and am considering an upgrade to somewhere between 7.6 and 7.9 atm ... okay, those are my scattered thoughts for you Cool
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  • #24
  • Posted: 02/10/2018 20:57
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I've been updating some older Film ratings changes from the last several months-to-a-year-to-as-far-back-as-two-years Cool or so... I just wanted to re-acclimate myself to Classical/Rock/Jazz ratings before I made a more "official" decision as to their exact ratings (for comparison, to help remind myself of the differentiation between 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.0 and so forth). Updates can be seen both on this log (first page, last two weeks) and on my "Greatest Films" list (in bold) in the Movies and TV forum ... it takes much less time to rapidly re-familiarize oneself with music than it does film... Several of them are pretty much returning to ratings I had them at in prior years (with listology.com), before I got a bit overly strict, in some regards, with my film ratings (I've gone both ways: ratings too high, ratings too low, probably evening out now into greater overall accuracy ... in each art form it's been a similar process as I become increasingly acclimated to it...). Several more to come -- just still undecided (such as: Magnificent Ambersons (probably at least 8.5), Greed (8 or higher?), Blue Angel (8 or higher?), Sunset Boulevard (at least 8/10), On the Waterfront (probably at least 8/10), Seventh Seal (at least 8/10) ... being perhaps the most likely to still be upgraded, changes both large and small...)
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  • #25
  • Posted: 02/14/2018 00:43
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New week up and going ... First post, first page ... Still revisiting lots of Rock, some Jazz and some paintings/films here and there ... Revisited Magnificent Ambersons yesterday and finally re-rated it, though my current upgrade is a bit tentative. Could be off by as much as +0.6. I'll revisit again very soon or fairly soon, to be sure.
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  • #26
  • Posted: 02/19/2018 01:55
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Interview with Piero Scaruffi by Francesco Nunziata, February 16th 2018

(One of the more interesting interviews with the difficult to pin down critic-historian (etc) ... Note that original text was in Italian so translation probably contains errors)

Intro
Born in Italy ( Trivero , Biella ) in 1955 , but resident in California since 1983 , Piero Scaruffi has become, over the years, one of the most important and influential music critics in the world, thanks to a website among the most visited by fans of rock music (and not only!) and some books dedicated to the history of rock, jazz and avant-garde in general.

Loved and hated in equal measure, Scaruffi continues to divide music lovers, mainly because of his judgments not too tender towards some of the most beloved artists ( Beatles , David Bowie , Queen , U2 , etc.).

In his ranking of the best rock records of all time, in the first place appears Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart . After the publication of my book dedicated to the Californian genius (" Captain Mask Replica "), it seemed a good idea to contact Piero to ask him some questions about Captain Beefheart, his masterpiece from 1969, his music in general, but also to discuss with him of the current state of rock music and music criticism. What follows is the result of a busy email exchange that lasted about a month.

Francesco Nunziata
Let's start with a curiosity: when did you listen to a Captain Beefheart record for the first time?

Piero Scaruffi
I do not remember the year, but I remember the occasion. I bought a book written by Riccardo Bertoncelli , I think it was called " Pop Story ", and I decided to buy an album for each of the musicians that were not included in the various thematic chapters, but they were grouped at the end of the book, in a chapter dedicated to musicians they did not belong to any conventional kind. By pure coincidence, my favorite record store in Turin had a copy of Trout Mask Replica that was on sale at a discounted price. I'll never know why that shop had a copy of a record that hardly anyone knew at the time in Italy. Perhaps we had read the same book. I do not remember the year. Early seventies.

Francesco Nunziata
What was your reaction after the first listen to Trout Mask Replica ?

Piero Scaruffi
It is one of the albums that convinced me to listen to rock music, of which I had a very low opinion. At the time I had just discovered James Joyce , the surrealist painters, the Buñuel cinema ... Somehow, Trout Mask Replica seemed to adapt to the scheme.

Francesco Nunziata
What other albums made you approach rock music?

Piero Scaruffi
Ummagumma of Pink Floyd , Weasels Ripped My Flesh by Frank Zappa , then I do not remember.

Francesco Nunziata
What distinguishes Beefheart's approach to blues from that of other Sixties musicians?

Piero Scaruffi
I do not think it's blues. It's classical music.

Francesco Nunziata
What exactly do you think when you think about "classical music"?

Piero Scaruffi
I think of poetry and philosophy.

Francesco Nunziata
Believe that Beefheart was also influenced by classical music (recently, discussing with a friend of mine, the names of Schumann came out - to be precise, " Fantasia in C Major " - and Satie , but also Messiaen and serialism) and from the vanguard (things like John Cage , etc.)?

Piero Scaruffi
I do not think he had many influences. He did what was natural for him. The surprising thing is that many strange things became natural for him. Each of them could have generated a separate career.

Francesco Nunziata
Why fans of classical music or contemporary music should listen to a record like Trout Mask Replica and, in general, the music of Captain Beefheart ?

Piero Scaruffi
It depends on your definition of classical music. Why should a classical music fan listen to Beethoven's latest sonatas ? I am absolute folly.

Francesco Nunziata
On your website, Trout Mask Replica is firmly in first place in the ranking of the best rock records ever. What are the reasons for this choice?

Piero Scaruffi
Show me a better record and I will be happy to place it in first place.

(For thirty years, I went on to say that the three best records on that list should not be in order, but then I got used to the idea of ​​having Beefheart as number one.

Francesco Nunziata
On the page you have dedicated to Captain Beefheart, about Trout Mask Replica , write:

There are many allegorical messages of Van Vliet 's masterpiece, moreover enclosed in a massive envelope of abstractions that would allow even a cosmic - metaphysical interpretation, in the face of the author' s claims of illiteracy.

Do you want to tell us something about this "cosmic-metaphysical interpretation"?

Piero Scaruffi
No, I do not think he would be happy if someone gave a rational explanation of his music.

Francesco Nunziata
In my book, I also focused very much on the importance of the Beefheart texts . In my opinion, as a "poet", Beefheart is not inferior, to say, to the Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan . Rather! Some texts by Trout Mask Replica (I think, for example, those of "Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish", "Steal Softly Thru Snow", "Well", "Old Fart at Play", etc.), like those his other records ("The Clouds Are Full of Wine (" Not Whiskey or Rye) "," Making Love to a Vampire With a Monkey on My Knee "," 81 Poop Hatch "," Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat ", Etc.), hide real poetic vertigo. What is your opinion on Beefheart as a poet?

Piero Scaruffi
I do not have a great opinion of rock musicians as poets. They are all much inferior to the great poets of the last fifty years ( Heaney, Merrill, Zukofsky, Brodsky, Ashbery, Ammons, Brathwaite, Akhmatova, Yetvushenko, Herbert, Rozewicz, Holan, Ekelof, Elytis, Octavio Paz, Luzi, Zanzotto, Sereni ... ). If you really want to read poetry, there are dozens and maybe hundreds of poets that are better than any rock musician.

My opinion has always been that rock music is underestimated as music but overvalued as poetry. There are many rock compositions that can easily stand next to the works of Messiaen , Shostakovic, Elliot Carter, Hovhaness, Lutoslawski, Milton Babbitt, Lou Harrison, Karel Husa, Xenakis, Ligeti, Penderecki, Boulez, Stockhausen , etc. Instead, I find it difficult to place any pop / rock / folk musician alongside the greatest poets. That said, I agree that Beefheart had a rare gift in the use of words. But "for words" in the context of sounds, starting from the sound of his voice.

Francesco Nunziata
Speaking of poetry, what do you think of the Nobel Prize given to Bob Dylan?

Piero Scaruffi
Nobel prizes are no longer significant, especially in literature, so I do not follow them.

Francesco Nunziata
In " Captain Mask Replica ", speaking of the band that recorded Trout Mask Replica , I wrote that Beefheart and his musicians "represented nothing but themselves, followers of an alternative and very private counter-culture." How do you see it?

Piero Scaruffi
I agree.

Francesco Nunziata
You wrote that Trout Mask Replica has an "art-rock aura that previous albums did not have." What did you mean exactly?

Piero Scaruffi
It is the first Beefheart album that does not seem spontaneous. I feel that he wanted to make a work of art, not just a work.

Francesco Nunziata
What is your opinion on the Beefheart wind instrument?

Piero Scaruffi
The harmonica for the era of free jazz. An extension of his howl. But free jazz used "freedom" to embellish music, to make it more beautiful. Beefheart always seems to use everything (voice, rhythm, the band and his clarinet) to make it ugly. He is constantly in tension with his music.

Francesco Nunziata
In your opinion, is it still possible today to repeat an experience like the one that led to the creation of Trout Mask Replica ?

Piero Scaruffi
No, of course, every age is different. You can no longer write a " Divine Comedy " and you can no longer create a Sistine Chapel . Every era has its forms of expression. Today the equivalent of Trout Mask Replica could come out of video games or digital art. And even the very concept of "disco" has changed. A fifty year old record is both physically and conceptually a different artifact from today's album. The way in which the music is created is completely different.

Francesco Nunziata
What can Captain Beefheart's music teach new generations of musicians? What is your most important artistic legacy?

Piero Scaruffi
Ignore the dogmas and use your imagination. Science is not the answer, madness is the answer. And we do not even know what the question is.

Francesco Nunziata
Do you like his painting?

Piero Scaruffi
I find it ugly.

Francesco Nunziata
Ok: explain!

Piero Scaruffi
No explanation.

Francesco Nunziata
All right, I do not insist. In any case, I find that his painting represents the visual equivalent of his music. It is no coincidence, moreover, that some of his songs and some of his paintings share the same title! Many of his paintings are really powerful: in them, the abstract expressionism of Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning meets the "essence" of the Mojave desert!

But let's go further: what is your opinion on the current state of rock music and music criticism?

Piero Scaruffi
I stopped reading music critics when I was very young. That's why I started writing about rock music. I did not like the way music critics treat rock music. Rock music has not had the kind of academic critique that is found in the field of jazz or cinema. I hope things are changing, but I do not have time to investigate. I have worked with some of the best universities in the world on a number of topics. Whenever I offered to conduct a rock music class, everyone was smiling as if they were joking. So there is no serious exegesis because serious people do not take it seriously, but also: they do not take it seriously because there is no serious exegesis.

The current state of rock music is difficult to assess because first you have to define what "rock" music is. If you stick to the original definition (guitar, bass, drums, vocals), it's probably dying. If you update the definition, including all kinds of music created by young people, then it is probably as vibrant as it has ever been. But times have changed and the importance of music is no longer what it used to be. In the sixties there were no video games and there were no social media and so on. This music (music made by young people for young people, or in any other way you want to call it) has been an extremely influential art. Today it is clearly less influential. This does not mean, however, that there will not be great musicians in the future. Something similar happened in all the arts. Think of poetry, which for millennia has been the most important art. Most people today can not name a single living poet. However, this does not mean that there are no great poets.

Francesco Nunziata
Many are lashing out against your critical approach to music ...

Piero Scaruffi
Piero is not interested in "controversy" ...

Francesco Nunziata
Many others, however, continue to repeat that the "rock" is dead ...

Piero Scaruffi
This is always a stupid statement. People die, art does not die. We die. I will die and die. Music remains and continues to evolve. Even when the last human being dies, there will still be sound in the universe, and perhaps the greatest symphony ever (10/10) will be composed of the asteroid that will make the Earth explode or the final explosion of the Sun.

Captain Beefheart of paradise will think: "Sound like Trout Mask Replica ! ... God is plagiarizing my music!"

Francesco Nunziata
Is it possible that the qualitative crisis of rock music also depends on the diffusion of a less severe musical criticism?

Piero Scaruffi
I do not think there is a decline in quality. Only a decline in the social impact.

Francesco Nunziata
Is it an irreversible decline?

Piero Scaruffi
Is the decline in the importance of poetry or theater irreversible? I have no idea. It's a bad idea to make predictions about the future. It is hard enough to understand the past!

Francesco Nunziata
I know you recently moved to China ...

Piero Scaruffi
Just yesterday I came back to California . I live both in China and in the United States (fifty and fifty). In China I speak in large conferences and I teach in different universities (in short, the same things I do in the United States).

Francesco Nunziata
How is it to live in the United States at the time of Donald Trump?

Piero Scaruffi
I live in California, not in the United States.

Francesco Nunziata
What would you say to a young man who wants to approach music criticism?

Piero Scaruffi
Write something else. There are more important things. As Frank Zappa said: "Music critics are people who can not write, who interview people who can not speak for an audience that can not read."

Francesco Nunziata
So, do not you believe in musical criticism anymore?

Piero Scaruffi
I never believed it.
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AfterHours



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  • #27
  • Posted: 02/19/2018 23:08
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New week underway ... First post, first page ... Focus right now is on Pop & Hip Hop (etc) ... Busily revisiting and updating these lists...

Pop: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=19794
Hip Hop (etc): https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=19805

I may do additional genre lists as well (not sure when), but I decided to start with these because I felt like revisiting them and these are also the genres that people over the years tend to assume I don't listen to and/or have underestimated. If you feel I've rated a 7/10 work too low (or an album(s) below 7/10), listen to the albums above it (especially those expressing similar emotions/concepts) and then you will probably understand. If, after doing so, you still feel that way, you're always free to state your case to me. If I agree with you, I might change my mind. It HAS happened Very Happy
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Last edited by AfterHours on 02/19/2018 23:20; edited 1 time in total
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  • #28
  • Posted: 02/19/2018 23:19
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Unintended post...
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Facetious



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  • #29
  • Posted: 02/23/2018 00:15
  • Post subject: Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2018)
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AfterHours wrote:
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine (1992) Not Rated to 7.3/10


Time to listen to Korn's self-titled as well?
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AfterHours



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  • #30
  • Posted: 02/23/2018 00:21
  • Post subject: Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2018)
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Facetious wrote:
Time to listen to Korn's self-titled as well?


At some point... maybe soon?

I used to own it and another one of theirs (Follow the Leader I think ... in their mid-late 90's heyday) so I'm not unfamiliar with them. Sort of an embarrassing few months of my life, but I'll do my best to overcome the repercussions of such memories while revisiting! Laughing

What do you think of their debut?
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