Hie thee to Lillian Schwartz's YouTube channel and immerse yourself in her bad-ass artistry. Her pioneering computer animation was my number one revelation at this year's Flaherty Seminar: Sonic Truth. [Related: an ongoing visual study of computer GUI in cinema.] And now, as promised, a particularly sonorous collage of links, presided over by the beneficent image of Lillian back in the day.
- One of many links from the super-excellent sound studies blog Sounding Out!: The Treachery of Sound in Comic Books. "The most famous use of comic sound effect words is probably from the old 1960s Batman TV series—where the “SOCK!” and “BONG!” of superhero and sidekick reinforced the campy aesthetic of the program. It is telling that the Batman-theme (and the fight scenes in general) uses horn flares to emphasize those “POW!” and “BIFF!” moments. The suggestion is that the ostentatious representations of sound that these textual flare sound effect words provide are an empty signifier. There is no soundbehind that sound."
- Brainiac notes the prevalence of sonic skeuomorphism and "comfort noise" in daily life: "A car door is essentially a hollow shell with parts placed inside it. Without careful design the door frame amplifies the rattling of mechanisms inside. Car companies know that if buyers don’t get a satisfying thud when they close the door, it dents their confidence in the entire vehicle.... To produce the ideal clunk, car doors are designed to minimise the amount of high frequencies produced (we associate them with fragility and weakness) and emphasise low, bass-heavy frequencies that suggest solidity."
- "One time, a friend told me he refused to listen to music on the NYC subway because he would miss out on all the interesting conversations that take place in subway cars. He made me feel a little self-conscious, frankly; my white headphones were a sign of distinction and, dare I say, musical snobbery. But his comment made me realize that when we put our headphones on, we are doing more than setting up our soundtrack: we are tuning out the world around us, and in that act we are exercising the power to not listen to others. When we or the people around us blast their music, maybe that is what they want: to be heard. In the loudness of their music there is a subversive element, subversive because it demands to be heard. If music oftentimes reflects who we are, in playing music in public we are sharing it with others, and expressing it in a loud manner. It may seem rude, but it becomes an expression of self from which you can’t run away. When we listen to someone’s music across the subway car, we’re listening to them."
- Leah Churner asks what happened to the Hollywood musical? One of her answers: the 1970s movie brats."The following decade was even more inhospitable to the Hollywood musical—even those created by hot young directors in touch with the zeitgeist. In fact, when we examine the most repercussive financial flubs of the big New Hollywood directors in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, a pattern of musicals emerges....If a less debauched production, The Wiz was a tremendously consequential financial failure: the film was largely blamed for the demise of black-cast American movies in the ‘70s. However, as Spike Lee noted in a 1991 Playboy interview, 'the blame was put solely on “black people who failed to support this film.” Whereas, if a white film doesn’t work, it would be the director or whoever.'"
- Speaking of The Wiz, was no one else alarmed by this aspect of the upcoming Lumet retrospective at Lincoln Center? "This dynamic adaptation of THE WIZARD OF OZ features an all-star cast and toe-tapping soundtrack. Set in 1970s New York, the film stars Diana Ross as the timid Dorothy who gets swept away to the Land of Oz for a journey of self-discovery. With its spectacular Art Deco-meets-disco landscapes, costumes by Oscar de la Renta and Norma Kamali, and music by Quincy Jones, it's a treat for all ages. Nominated for Academy Awards for art decoration, cinematography, and score. The film also stars Michael Jackson as ‘The Scarecrow’ and Richard Pryor as ‘The Wiz.’ THE WIZ screens Saturday, July 23 at 10:30AM in a special Movies For Kids presentation."
- "My summer sound studies A-V list encourages you to fill your idle hours watching the “top 6″ featured appearances of the magnetic tape recorder in film, in chronological order (2 each month, with a bonus “supporting role” nod rounding out each post). Not only will “Play it Again (And Again) Sam” help you beef up your cinema buff credentials, but it will trace a little-known history, asking you to consider how the recorder tangled its thin brown plastic tape so effectively into the warp and weft of our twentieth-century lives. You’ll find that my “top 6″ list reveals much more human desire than technological determinism; the representations I examine express a complex mixture of fear and fascination, optimism and regret, change and stasis. Often a tool of the powerful, sometimes a weapon of the weak, the tape recorder was a cold war domestic product that could never truly be domesticated. As you will see in this spoiler-free three part series, interactions with the tape recorder remixed America’s workplaces, schools, homes, public spaces and private moments, ultimately shifting how the world was heard (and heard again and again)."
- Time for another film break! The brain-bending "Multiple Sidois."
- Finally, a topic near and dear to my heart, upon which I could squander hours, courtesy of The Awl: Best Movie Closing Songs, in Order. Let me know what the author or the commentariat may have missed in the comments, s.v.p. ASIDE FROM THE ABSOLUTELY SUBLIME AND TRANSCENDENT USE OF THE O'JAYS' "LOVE TRAIN" AT THE END OF THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO, THAT IS.
