From Under My Sculpt

Detrimentalist

2008-10-20T01:58:26Z

I've long been a fan of Venetian Snares, a breakcore artist from Canada, real name Aaron Funk. He probably wouldn't like to be branded "breakcore", but pretty much anyone who listens to breakcore knows about Venetian Snares. If you don't know what breakcore is, there's a fairly good documentary on Google Video, about half an hour long, available here. Contains strong language. In the documentary, the breakcore artist Hrvatski (yes, that does mean Croatian in Croatian) characterises breakcore as "anti-dance music", "fragmented", "abstract", and "dance music you can't dance to". With regards Venetian Snares, Bong-Ra calls him a "crazy genius".

So, I was quite pleased to get a hold of Venetian Snares' 20th album, Detrimentalist. The record label claims it is "disgusting ejacutronic rave horn from Aaron Funk, a return to the energetic early days of Jungle." Recently, Snares has been doing more orchestral music than pure breakcore, as characterised by Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (2005) and My Downfall (Original Soundtrack) (2007). However, Detrimentalist is more like Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms (2006); harder breakcore with acid and jungle elements. Thankfully, Detrimentalist is a lot better than Cavalcade..., `and is perhaps one of my favourite Snares albums to date.

Blasting open the album is Gentleman, a fast-paced breakcore sound in 7/4 which immediately sets the scene and lets you know who you're listening to. With a cut-up KRS-One sample, Snares simultaneous disses "fakecore" producers and establishes the album's stylistic mood. The second song, Koonut-Kaliffee also helps set the scene, a darker, brooding feel. With a dominating sample from Spock in an old Star Trek episode (Amok Time, in case you're interested). The track's name is a reference to a Vulcan marriage ritual. The slow, almost grinding progression of this track (it's in 4/4 (I think), so feels a lot less frantic than the first track) helps a deep sense of panic underlie the music.

One touches the other in order to feel each other's thoughts. In this way, our minds were locked together, so that at the proper time, we would both be drawn to Koonut-Kaliffee.

True to the record label's promises, the third and fourth tracks, Sajtban and Kyokushin are silly jungle-inspired breakcore pieces, replete with ridiculous synth-lines, 90s piano rave riffs, chipcore breakdowns, acid synth melodies, and inane samples. Eurocore MVP, in true junglist tradition, throws in some reggae samples, before punching a silly synth- and bass-line at is and then dropping into the compulsory cut-up Amen Break we've all come to expect and love.

Poo Yourself Jason, the sixth track, is probably the album's weakest. A sniffling little beat accompanies some IDM and 8bit distractions, and the whole thing reminds me of Snares' 2002 glitchcore album Winter in the Belly of a Snake. This is followed up by the bouncy 7/4 classic jungle-homage Circle Pit which I have mixed feelings - can't quite decide whether I love it or hate it. In so many ways, it's a classic jungle track, but it's been cut up and "Snaresified" - with lots of fun on the way. I'm just not sure whether it works as a piece of music. As an experimental foray, however, it's pretty damned good.

Track number eight, Flashforward is in competition with Poo Yourself Jason for the prize of the weakest track. Not because it's technically bad or not in-your-face enough - it's actually pretty good for that - but it's just not very enjoyable. I don't find hard acid with Amen samples and glitchcore breaks very listenable. It doesn't feel structured enough - I know this is an odd thing to ask for on a breakcore album, where structure is eschewed, but there's no common thread running through the track. I think a lot of Snares' tracks on Meathole (2005) suffered from this.

I like Bebikukorica Nigiri, because it reminds me of chiptune artists I'm fond of (like Oddioblender and Sabrepulse). The track is entirely 8bit noises, with the exception of a rolling breakcore drumbeat behind it. Not an instant classic, but it instantly finds its way into your heart. A warm track to come home to. The album finishes on track ten, Miss Balaton, which features ambient and orchestral elements. Slow, pondering, and wistful. Not panic-stricken like Koonut-Kaliffee, but melodic and considered. The drums eventually come in at 2:49, glitchy little beeps and chirps, serving as a support to the pensive ambience. The track reaches a climax before consuming itself in its own greed, leaving a gentle aftermath where the track fades out, and the listener can reflect on the album.

This album is loud and aggressive. It does what it sets out to do and doesn't let you have a rest. The tracks that aren't so good are thankfully buffered by better tracks sitting between them - this does unfortunately give it a bit of an up-down feel. I can see this album being in my regular circulation for quite a while. It offers a refreshing break from Venetian Snare's less inspiring breakcore efforts (and of the "fakecore" producers who set out to mimic his style), while still being hard and edgy enough to be considered "true" breakcore of its own right.

So my blog is broken

2008-10-10T23:10:46Z

So yeah, my blog is broken. Not in an epic manner. Just the comments are being iffy - I know for sure that my spam filter went "nom nom nom" the other day and ate up at least one valuable comment. So if you've commented here before, and it's not appeared, please post it again! And if it keeps not appearing... Go away, spammers! You make the code upset.

Also, I realise that a lot of the page layout is weird and the links between articles don't all work either. And yeah, it isn't really that pretty at the moment. When I get the time I'm planning on looking into these things, fixing stuff and making it aesthetically nice. If anyone wants to be super-awesome and go well beyond the call of duty, they could help me out. Anyone know Movable Type fairly well? As I don't, which is perhaps behind some of the problems.

GRE and London "Pilgrimage"

2008-10-08T13:12:48Z

So last week I travelled down to London to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). The GRE is a standardised test that many universities in the US require you to take if you want to apply to them for postgraduate programs. I think the reasoning is that, by using a standardised test, they can judge how intelligent and skilled applicants are, especially as educational standards vary across the world.

The test has three parts: a verbal component, a quantitative component, and an analytic or writing component. The verbal part is basically just an extended vocabulary test. Thanks to my study of the Baha'i Writings, I'm familiar with several unusual words, such as exorbitant, laudatory, abrogate, and belligerent, and this had me in good stead for the test. However I must confess while studying for the test I wondered on many occasions exactly why knowing the words pusillanimous, salubrious, phlegmatic, and defalcate would assist me in my graduate career.

The quantitative component is basic, high-school level maths. Unfortunately, it had been 5 years since I did that, so I really needed to cram geometry formulae and algebraic tricks. The only maths I've done at uni has been simple calculations like f_n = (nc) ⁄ (2L) (the standing wave of an open tube), f = (c ⁄ 2π)√(A ⁄ VL) (Helmholtz's resonance), z = (x‾−μ) ⁄ (σ ⁄ √N) (the z-score of a given dataset). While this looks fairly complex, it's just a case of applying the formulae. No solving for x, no shifting around quadratic functions, and certainly no manipulation of geometric shapes. Pythagoras was welcomed back into my life with open arms. Finally, the writing section of the GRE asks you to write two essays - one presenting your opinion on an issue, and the other is to analyse and argument.

Anyway, this post's not meant to be about the exam. There's loads of stuff been written on that. The important thing is that I was going to London! One thing about London that is significant for Baha'is is that it is home to the gravesite of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957. In light of my upcoming pilgrimage, I thought it'd be a great idea to visit, especially as I've never been. It'd be a little "mini-pilgrimage" in preparation for the greater pilgrimage I'll be undertaking in January.

I checked the UK Baha'i Website for directions, and unfortunately, it turns out that the area is only open for visitors prior to 5pm, due to security issues. My GRE was at 12:30, and I anticipated it taking several hours. Add a 40 minute subway ride and then half-hour walk on top of that, and I realised I wouldn't be able to get there in time. Especially since I'd also made arrangements to meet up with people in the evening. So I discarded the idea.

I arrived in London at 7:30am (on a Megabus - not very comfortable for sleeping), and after getting a breakfast and studying a little, headed to the test centre. I got there at 10:30am, which was 2 hours early. "You're pretty early," the receptionist said. "Would you like to do the test early?" I jumped at the opportunity, and was finished by about 1:30pm. I was weighing up my options, and I figured, why not, let's go visit the gravesite. I knew what tube station it was near - Arnos Grove - but not how to get to the graveyard from the station, or even where in the graveyard it was. I knew that it was vaguely northwest of the station. And that's it. I jumped in a train and headed out.

Leaving the station, I headed west for a while, and then north. Along the way I was listening to a talk on my MP3 player by Adib Taherzadeh, about the nature of the soul. I found a lovely park and circumnavigated it. I found an old trail behind some houses, and some wild brambles (blackberries) growing. I wandered around the area for over 2 hours. (At this point, my soundtrack had changed to Universal Indicator's Innovation in the Dynamics of Acid, an unusual acid house mix album.)

I came very close to giving up. Given that it was, in essence, a spiritual search, I couldn't help but draw comparisons from the mystic writings of the Baha'i Faith. For instance, the story related in the Seven Valleys about Majnún, the celebrated Arabian and Persian lover, seeking his beloved Laylí. Majnún and Laylí are used to symbolise true love, and this story demonstrates that nothing will stop the lover in search of his beloved.

It is related that one day they came upon Majnún sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down. They said, "What doest thou?" He said, "I seek for Laylí." They cried, "Alas for thee! Laylí is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!" He said, "I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her."
Yea, although to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust, yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching. "Whoso seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it."
Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys p6-7

Another passage I was reminded of after exploratory disappointment:

The steed of this Valley [the Valley of Search] is patience; without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal. Nor should he ever be downhearted; if he strive for a hundred thousand years and yet fail to behold the beauty of the Friend, he should not falter.
ibid, p5

With that in mind, I pressed on, further and further. I started climbing a hill, and at the top, through a fence, I spied some graves. I've never been so happy to see graves! I found an entrance and walked around a bit. When I say "a bit", I mean I scoured through the whole place, seeking here and everywhere. Yet I couldn't find the gravesite of the Guardian. I knew from pictures that it had a large golden eagle on a pedestal (like in the picture), so it's fairly distinctive. I can't have just walked past it. Time then caught up with me, and I needed to head back to the tube station to get back into central London to meet my friend.

The rest of my day went very well, I had some delicious authentic Chinese food, I caught the bus at 11pm, and headed back to Edinburgh. When I got back, I consulted the relevant maps, and it turns out that I was actually in the wrong graveyard. Perhaps this is a lesson in being prepared? On the one hand, I was disappointed that I wasn't able to find the object of my search. On the other hand, I was happy to have had the opportunity - after all, I hadn't been planning on visiting. It was good exercise and the time spent walking allowed me to clear my head. One day I'll go to the Guardian's resting place. But that day is yet to come, it would seem.

Best Birthday Present Ever

2008-09-26T09:05:21Z

Arriving at my doorstep, on no less auspicious a day than my birthday, I receive this letter from the Baha'i World Centre, inviting me on pilgrimage. (Click for full image)

There's a long waiting list to go on Baha'i Pilgrimage, so you need to apply well in advance. I applied roughly three years ago. I recently got an email with a list of potential dates. I selected the ones that best suited me, and now I get this letter, officially confirming my dates. My dates are the 5th to the 13th of January, 2009.

Baha'is go on pilgrimage to the Akka-Haifa area, in what is now Israel. Akka is the prison-city where Baha'u'llah was captive for much of His life, and His Shrine with His earthly remains is nearby in Bahjí. The Bab, the forerunner to Baha'u'llah, is interred in a shrine on Mount Carmel in Haifa, very close to the Baha'i World Centre, the administrative centre of the Faith. All of these places are surrounded by beautiful, tranquil gardens. The following video is an excerpt from a Canadian TV show about the gardens around the Baha'i World Centre:

Baha'i pilgrimage itself consists of nine days, in which a group of pilgrims (I'm gonna be a pilgrim! That's really cool!) are taken on guided tours the Baha'i World Centre, the Holy Shrines, and various other places in the region associated with figures from Baha'i history. The pilgrims are also given free time to visit gravesites, the gardens, and other important locations. The bounty of going on pilgrimage is one special to every Baha'i, and is regarded as a great honour.

I've got my flights booked, I've got my accommodation sorted, and I'm very excited about this! This was probably the best thing I got on my birthday :)

I'm alive!

2008-09-20T01:23:47Z

I'm alive! This is just a quick update to all my readers (yes, all three of you!) that I'm still alive. Not been blogging recently due to a somewhat hectic summer. But I'm starting back at university soon, and university work makes me procrastinate on my blog, so expect some posts in the near future! I have a few drafts up my sleeve that I need to finish off, and several things on my mind that I'd like to talk about. I just need to put finger to key and actually write it. I'd also like to streamline this blog at some point, give it a nice design, sort out the categories into something more manageable.

Watch this space!

Why I love second-hand bookshops, part 2

2008-06-22T13:49:16Z

Strictly speaking, this wasn't a second hand book shop, but more of a stall, at a village fete. Regardless, I was able to nab Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and, curiously, Experimental Design and Statistics by one Steve Miller. All paperback, all for fifty pence each. Two pounds for four books. A couple of them are a little tattered, but for 50p I can hardly complain!

I first read Lord of the Rings when I was 11, and I've been a big fan of the series ever since. Despite that, I've never owned my own copy (for shame!), and I'm glad to finally get it. It's a one-volume copy, with the all-important appendices and index. I was just flicking through it this morning, and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into it again.

I've never read Gulliver's Travels, but I'm familiar with the story and many of the satirical themes in it. As such, I'll allude to it in conversations when I want to sound intelligent and educated. Which is a little hypocritical. So maybe I should read it. Which is why I got it. And it's a damn good book, or so I hear.

I'm even more unfamiliar with Conrad's Heart of Darkness, although I've seen Apocalypse Now. Which is the same thing, right?

Experimental Design and Statistics may seem like an odd choice, but that's almost exactly the name of a course I'm enrolled in at uni, so I figured it could be useful. Looks like it's mainly from a psychological perspective, which is alright - methodologically, experimental linguistics has a fair bit of overlap with psychology.

Four books for two pounds. Not bad, not bad at all.

Canada Apologises

2008-06-12T04:31:14Z

So, Canada apologises for forcibly separating hundreds of thousands of indigenous children from their families and sending them to abusive boarding schools (see also). About time, I say. It's about time that the state recognises historical human rights abuses for what they are. Yet I'm still left with a sour taste in my mouth. It strikes me as too little, too late. An apology is a great step forward, but it's just words. "Let deeds, not words, be your adorning," wrote Baha'u'llah (Hidden Words #5 from the Persian). So where are the compensation payments to the affected families? How is the Canadian state today trying to tackle institutional racism? What is being done to address the segregation and wealth gap between whites and natives? Where, in short, is the justice?

Events like this remind me of Australia's apology over a similar policy towards the indigenous people there (see also), and Norway's apology for their sterilisation of their Roma (Gypsy) population, which was ongoing from 1934 to 1977 (sorry, no links). No reparations were paid in these cases either.

And as far as I know, there has never been any apology for Russia's long-running abuse of indigenous Siberian peoples, which dates as far back as the 17th Century and as recently as the Soviet Era. The world is a tough place.

Update on the Arrests in Iran

2008-05-16T15:08:44Z

Barney Leith has just written a quick update on the arrested Iranian Baha'is I mentioned in my previous post. Check it out, it's full of goodies. Also new since my last post are these blog posts about the arrests: Where Being Baha'i is A Crime; As if Natural Disasters were not Enough!; and Earth, Wind and Fire: The Road to Hell.

Also, it seems that my comments have been playing up, and anonymous comments, instead of being forwarded for moderation, have just been deleted. So apologies to anyone who's tried to comment only to have their comment disappear into the ether. I'm looking into it - for now, commenting has returned to normal.

Worrying news from Iran

2008-05-15T22:49:49Z

On January 16th 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, fled his country for Egypt, in the face of increasing domestic turmoil. On February 11th, Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in the Iranian Revolution. The new Islamic Republic of Iran was made official on April 1st, ousting the Shah from power and setting in motion probably the world's largest theocratic state.

The monarchy had not been sympathetic towards the Baha'is. For instance, the Shah and his aides encouraged radical clerics to preach against the Baha'is, resulting in mob attacks on Baha'is and destruction of property. However, this new government was different. The eradication of the Baha'i Faith is one of its guiding principles.

On the 21st of August 1980, all nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran - the democratically elected national governing body for Iran's Baha'is - went missing. Their bodies have never been found. The Iranian Baha'is, not to be trifled with, simply elected a new Assembly. This new assembly saw all but one of its members executed on 27th December 1981. The Iranian government was going for the nerve centre of the Baha'i community. Kill the leaders, and the masses are in disarray. Following more executions of various Baha'is around the country, the Iranian government outlawed all formal Baha'i organisations and institutions in 1983. The Baha'i community responded dutifully by disbanding its National Spritual Assembly, and around 400 local assemblies at localities throughout the country.

Since then, there has been no formal organisation of Baha'is in Iran. The persecution of Baha'is has continued, although in a more subtle manner (after international pressure in the 1980s the executions slowed). See, for example, 54 Baha'is sentenced to jail in Iran and Baha'i cemetery destroyed in Iran.

To see to the minimum needs of Iran's Baha'is, a group was formed called Friends in Iran, consisting of seven people. One of these people, Mrs Mahvash Sabet, was arrested on 5th March this year, and has been held incommunicado - forbidden from speaking to anyone. The other six members of this group were arrested just yesterday, the 14th of March. This sounds very similar to the disappearances and executions of the 80s, and the Baha'i World is very worried.

Baha'i News World Service story
Barney Leith's first and second reports on the story.
Barney's post on the response to this by a human rights group.
Baha'i Views's coverage
Another blogger's response

Complaints, and stuff

2008-05-15T15:31:03Z

A few people have asked what happened to my blogging. Well, it slowed down, due to several things. Mainly exams, assignments, and other annoying real-life constraints. I'm back on things now, at least mostly. I have a number of things I'd like to complain about:

The fact that it cost me £24 to get a train from Edinburgh to Lockerbie via Stirling, when a train from Edinburgh to Lockerbie via Glasgow would be only just over half of that.
The inability of anywhere in Edinburgh to sell cheap USB memory sticks. £15 for 2 gigs? No thanks. I got 4 gigs (plus a 2 gig SD card) for £16 from the interwebs.
Spam. Sneaking through my spam detector. As such, I've set it so that all anonymous comments to my blog have to be moderated before appearing on the site.
The fact that my "misc" category is the largest one on this blog... Oh, and my crappy style sheet. I'll have to rectify both of those sometime.
The fact that Chainmail Bikini, one of my favourite webcomics, has ceased to be. Not gone on indefinite hiatus, like A Lesson Is Learned, but actually stopped. Damn.

Anyway, I'll finish up this rather moany post with a couple of comics. This one is sorta how I feel at the moment, and this one just made me chuckle.

Pulp Fiction in Iambic Pentameter

2008-04-23T11:11:09Z

Pulp Fiction, as performed by the King's Men, via boingboing. Two scenes from Pulp fiction modified into Shakespearean language, replete with iambic pentameter!

You can see the original scenes in question here, between 1:02 and 1:29 (it's a little quiet so turn up your speakers), and here, between 4:19 and 5:38 (this one is louder, so remember to turn your volume down again). Warning, if you're not fond of strong language and gunshots, don't watch these videos.

Part of me likes this more than the original. Roll on the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing Tarantino's Tales of Travail: A Tragic Comedie in Three Parts. (I wanted to call it Commoners' Tales but a little googling revealed that that was the name of a slash fanfiction series...)

Also, I realise that a) this isn't purely Early Modern English in the Shakespearean sense - as the first commenter on the boingboing post notes, the hachis parmentier is named after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who wasn't born until at least 100 years after Shakespeare had died; and b) it isn't 100% iambic pentameter, it breaks occasionally (but so did Shakespeare!). Does that matter? It's a fine piece of translation, with an excellent rhyme at the end to signal the end of the scene.

Why I love second-hand bookshops, part 1

2008-04-11T21:03:33Z

I went into a second-hand bookshop on the way home from uni yesterday. (Pickerings Books, 30 Buccleuch Street (just on the corner with Buccleuch Place). It's closing down, unfortunately.) I usually look for books on Philosophy, Religion, and Language, although I'm open to all really. Sometimes you can get real gems.

Of course, everyone's definition of a gem differs. While my interest in language are mainly theoretical and phonological, I do have a penchant for language descriptions and obscure languages, and the idea of descriptive fieldwork seems very romantic and adventurous to me. (You'd be like Indiana Jones, but a linguist instead of an archaeologist!) So I stumble upon David Watters' A Grammar of Kham, a language spoken by roughly 45,000 people in western Nepal. How much? £5! You can't say no for that price. Especially when it's in such a good condition - hardback, no notable scuffs, paper practically as-new. I get home, and find out that Cambridge University Press, the publishers, expect £96 for the book, and that amazon.co.uk are charging £91.20.

Slightly less impressive, but still a good saving, I got Geoffrey Kimball's Koasati Dictionary (also known as Coushatta, a language spoken by around 400 people in Louisiana) for £4, when amazon.co.uk want £64, and the publishers $85.

Do I need these books? No. Do I want them? Yes. Will I use them, and find them useful? Probably. As I was explaining to my flatmate yesterday, I'm not buying them for any pragmatic value. I doubt I'll be stuck in western Nepal any time soon, or be asked to translate some Koasati myths. I got them because I find this stuff interesting. And because they were bargains!

Kimball, Geoffrey D. Koasati Dictionary. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
Watters, David E. A Grammar of Kham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Praat scripting

2008-04-08T23:48:38Z

I spent a good two hours last night playing around with Praat, with some rather odd results. Praat is a phonetic analysis program, packed full of features, that I've been using for over two years now. So far, I've mainly been using it for spectrograms, annotation of files, and making measurements. However, I needed to actually manipulate some sound files, so I started playing around with the settings to see what there is on offer. There's a lot, most of it over my head - multidimensional scaling and combine to ParamCurve, anyone?

I ended up making this WAV file (right click, "save target as" to download), mostly accidentally. It was originally a recording of me saying brewed, but has been manipulated in several ways. A few of the sounds (particularly the distorted time parts) remind me of noises in a lot of breakcore music I listen to (for instance, at around 1:45 this video of Venetian Snare's Szamár Madár (yes, it's meant to sound like that)).

The particular manipulation I wanted to do, was to take a sound file, and take a particular section of that file (from, say, 25ms to 150ms), and change the duration of that section (from, say, 125ms to 100ms). Reading the manual it seemed that this was indeed possible, but to do it with any great precision would require a script. So I figured, let's write this script, and since I'm going to the trouble of writing a script I might as well make it automate most of the process for me. As such, the script will manipulate the duration between the specified time points of the selected sound file, and, optionally, write the output to a .WAV file.

This is the first Praat script I've written from scratch (I've done a few others, mainly edits of other people's work to better suit whatever I'm working on), and if you want to see it, it's here. Hopefully the comments in the code make it fairly transparent, and I think its operation is relatively simple.

Okay, technical stuff now. Look away now! Don't say I didn't warn you! Beware! ... Now that I've scared away the non-geeks, let me talk a little about the extension possibilities of this script. Currently it's fairly limited - it only outputs to WAV, for example. It should be fairly easy to change what it outputs to (or even make a range of options appear on the form). In its current form, the user has to specify the start and the end of the area to be manipulated, by entering numbers. Another (probably easier) way to do this would be to take the information from a textgrid file associated with the sound file. Then all the user has to do is to make a textgrid file, add some points where they want the duration to be changed, and run the script. Coupled with a modification that allows for batch processing of files - modifying several files in one go - this would allow for fairly extensive modification at the click of a button.

Goodbye Garfield

2008-04-02T01:36:22Z

I don't like Garfield. It's a boring comic with no depth, no emotion, and most of the time it isn't even funny. However, I fell in love with Garfield after seeing some edits with all of Garfield's speech removed.

Since Garfield is a cat, he never technically speaks, he only thinks (with a thought bubble, à la Snoopy). Removing this from the strips make the comic's interactions appear as they would to a disconnected observer. Garfield becomes a real cat, rather than a smart-assed anthropomorphic feline. In the words of MvCRage, "It adds yet another depressing layer to the pathetic existence that is Jon" (Garfield's owner).

That's not all, however. About a month ago the blog garfield minus garfield started making the rounds. This version removes Garfield entirely. In the words of the site itself,

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let's laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

Along the same lines, and much older, is the Garfield randomiser, which doesn't modify the panels themselves, but rather the ordering of panels themselves. Think of it as a Garfield collage. There were some copyright issues with it, so google it to find some links and information. One of the best comics ever created (in my opinion) with the randomiser is the death of garfield.

This modification of existing art (or whatever you want to call comics) reminds me a lot of Marmaduke Explained and Dysfunctional Family Circus, and even those artists a few years ago who bought classic paintings and modified them with paint all over the shop, I can't remember their names. It's the visual equivalent of a remix, almost. And I really like the transposition of Garfield (the character) from a smug lasagna-loving cultural icon, into an ordinary housecat, and then into... nothing at all.

[Edit: Looks like The Comic Strip Doctor has written something about this, and mentions all the stuff I mentioned, and more! It's a great read, especially with the Garfield analysis towards the end.]

Words Words Words

2008-03-26T15:34:41Z

I recently read Words Words Words, by David Crystal. It's a popular science book (or should that be "popular lingustics"?) inviting readers of all backgrounds to discover the magic of words, and lexical investigation in general. The book is split into six parts: the universe of words; the origins of words; the diversity of words; the evolution of words; the enjoyment of words; and becoming a word detective, with between four and seven chapters per part.

Crystal writes in an easy-going informal style, which makes it very easy to follow and read through. Crystal's deep passion for words, and the English langyage in particular, is evident in his prose, with the enthusiasm leaping out the page at you, in the form of diverse quotations from literature both classical and contemporary, pictures from around the world, and amusing anecdotes about words and word-usage. Crystal's passion is infectious. Although I study linguistics, I can't say I find the lexicon to be the most fascinating area of study, and I get quite annoyed when people think that I "study words". Yet this book has really opened my eyes to the vast panorama of lexical beauty available to us - to all of us. And with chapter headings like Wordsmithery, Wordmelodies, Worddeaths, and Wordworlds, who can say no?

Along the way, Crystal addresses the language critics, naysayers, and doom-mongers who "reflect gloomily on the present state of the language, make dire prophecies about its future, and wish things were like the earlier golden age they remember so well" (p156), noting that such comments are as old as the language itself. He notes the perfectly natural stages of semantic shift and of word death, while also pointing out that new coinages or borrowings can greatly enhance English's expressiveness.

If you're interested in words, and in the English language in particular, but don't want to have to deal with preachy, badly-researched books, nor wade through a dense academic text, this book is ideal. Crystal is filling a sorely-felt gap in the popular linguistics genre - books written by actual linguists! As influential as Melvyn Bragg or Lynn Truss may be, they have no formal linguistics training, and often serve only to give linguists a bad name.

One, very minor, criticism I have of this book is that the references are scattered throughout the text, and not collated at the end. Having said that, Crystal is very methodical in his reporting of sources, and encourages us to be likewise. You can read his blog here.

Crystal, David. Words Words Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. (UK Paperback edition.)