Poker Face
An arresting shot by Leon, taken in '06.
The photo reminds me of Lady Gaga, whose song "Poker Face" seems to be everywhere including, unfortunately, our house. The lyrics are really inexcusable:
"I won't tell you that I love, kiss or hug you
'cause I'm bluffin with my muffin
I'm not lying, I'm just stunnin' with my love-glue-gunning (ma)
just like a chick in the casino, take your bank before I pay you out
I promise this, promise this
check this hand 'cause I'm marvelous"
And then the riff, two-times: "p-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face."
At least in my day (that would be the '80s) one could make sense of what the hell was going on in a song (excluding maybe "Stairway To Heaven"). I mean, Styx, Boston and REO Speedwagon - now these guys were screaming about something and while it all may have sounded kinda the same, we knew what it was about. Take "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey: two small-town losers hanging on via one-night stands. Or Asterly's "Never Gonna Give You Up" - well, that one is about a dude who's never gonna give her up. It may be gay but for a while it was fun to listen to. Or Heart's "I am the flower you are the seed, We walked in the garden, We planted a tree." Then there's Princes "Little Red Corvette" where he belts: "I've got a lion in my pocket and baby he is ready to roar" or AC/DC's wondefully named "Sink The Pink." No PG-13 needed for understanding there. Righteous.
The Internet makes music selection that much easier. Joy Division, for instance, can be heard in the Editors, Interpol, the Smiths and even the Cure but you really have to listen for it. Now a song's geneology captured via the Music Genome Project, begun in '88 by Stanford graduate Tim Westergren. Tim classified songs using >400 "genetic markers" that, applied to a song and taken together, help create a taxonomy of music. Markers include basic attributes like acoustic or electronic, to subtle qualities of the lead singer’s voice and all aspects of the arrangement - like hand claps in the mix. Dissonant harmonies, guitar effects, specific use of drums and cymbals, syncopation, orchestral music, and even subtle influences become part of the song’s DNA map. Online music companies Pandora.com (backed by Walden Ventures) and Last.fm (Index Ventures) use this technology to drive traffic and sales. This not surprising to readers of Ian Ayers "Super Crunchers" which shows how really, really large data set analysis transforming everything from industry to.. your music selection.
