Topping the UK charts on this day in 1958, the song by the ensemble Lord Rockingham’s XI, a group of session musicians fronted saxophonist Harry Robinson were the resident band for Oh Boy!, was based on the traditional Scottish folk jig “One Hundred Pipers.” Mostly instrumental and one of the first rock and roll numbers to feature a Hammond organ, the number is punctuated with four stereotypical Scotts phrases including the titular expression of annoyance or dismissal, och aye—“oh yes” and two well accented phrases, there’s a mouse loose about this house and it’s a fine, bright moonlit night. Disbanded with the end of the television programme, Lord Rockingham’s XI was sued by the descendants of the real marquess of the County of Northhampton for capitalising on the baronet’s title.
Via Misscellania, we are let in on a little secret as how remix artists can accomplish such peerless mashups by paying attention to chord progressions in songs, as with the lede example in this demonstration of In the Air Tonight X My Heart Will Go On, which make lyrics interchangeable and key and tempo easy to flatten out. The Beatles’ Yesterday and Mister Blue Sky from ELO have the same harmonic succession as do Michael Jackson’s Black or White and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2, and most other pop-songs have a much simpler foundation as their signature structure. A variant on the title rotation I-V-vi-IV (tonic, the major fifth, minor sixth to the major sixth) is a hit parade including Toto’s Africa, Beast of Burden, Despacito, Dragostea Din Tei, Lady Gaga’s Poker Face and Paparazzi, Otherside and Snow (Hey Oh) by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Zombie and We Didn’t Start the Fire as well as a number of gospels and Christian rock ballads. Songs using the so called ‘50s progression (I-vi-IV-V) include any number of doo-wop standards, Stand by Me, Blue Moon, Heart and Soul, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, Avril Lavigne’s Complicated, Unchained Melody, D’yer Mak’er, Crocodile Rock, Walking in Memphis, Monster Mash and Total Eclipse of the Heart. Sometimes I flatter myself thinking I have an ear for such correspondence but I do sometimes hear and can imagine medleys bleeding into each other.
Though I would too defend Maurizio Cattelan piece of a banana duct-taped to a wall as legitimate art in the route of Duchamp or Warhol (and not an object with actual permanence like the hyper-realistic and satirical sculptures in the artist’s repertoire but rather a perishable piece of fruit and a roll of duct tape that need replacing with a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to display the work—see also), the sale of a third edition (the first two were acquired by museums for a more reasonable sum of one-hundred and twenty thousand dollars) to an entrepreneur for just over six-million— well over its million dollar reserve price and paid in Bitcoin, one of the only lots for which the auction house would accept payment in that form—makes me think that the resurrection of the Trump regime, for all the obvious nefariousness, was also a vehicle to bring back the grift of crypto and NFTs. The main element of the work was purchased the morning of the auction from a local fruit vendor for 35¢, appreciating in value fifteen-million fold, by the end of the day. The two other copies were eaten while on exhibitions, as will this one, whose new owner is happy about the portable nature of the work that could be mounted anywhere.
Via Friend of the Blog par excellence Nag on the Lake, we are introduced to the esteemed French-Russian surgeon, Serge Voronoff (see also, though we were hoping they were one in the same personage) who gained international fame for his xenotransplantation experiments (see previously) as a meanings of restoring virility and vitality by grafting simian glands onto human recipients. Controversial and subsequently debunked as quackery, Voronoff’s practise and outrageous claims made him very wealthy—initially he moved from research on the thyroid to transplanting testes from executed criminals onto millionaire clients but soon demand surpassed donors and the doctor turned to using chimpanzee (see above) tissue instead. We learn about this work, which has echoes of modern rejuvenation movements and seemingly similarly ill-informed courtesy of a defiant letter to the editor penned by playwright George Bernard Shaw in May 1928 on behalf of the titular London’s Regent’s Park zoo’s most famous resident of the monkey house, not keen on donating—ahead of Voronoff’s much-anticipated visit to the UK in response to detractors maintaining that the implantation would cause humans to take on the baser attributes of their close relative—as read by Andy Serkis (previously—here’s an alternate source as the original link has been sadly zombified by AI slop)—Golem and Caesar from Planet of the Apes.
Beginning on this day in 2004, the series of protests (see also) lasting two months and one day called the Orange Revolution (Pomarancheva revoliutsiia, the colour of the campaign of Western-oriented Viktor Yushchenko and adopted by his supporters) caused political upheaval and reform and was sparked by the outcome of a presidential run-off perceived to be marred with fraud, corruption and voter intimidation, which favoured Russia-aligned candidate Victor Yanukovich. The Ukrainian Supreme Court was swayed by the acts of non-violent civil disobedience and general disruption, backed by international observers that questioned the election’s validity and annulled the results of the initial second round and ordered new voting, under close scrutiny, which were judged free and fair and ultimately installed Yushchenko in office with a “public inauguration on 23 January 2005.
On this day in 1974 during the General Assembly, the United Nations adopted a resolution recognising and reaffirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (after the 1917 and 1948 agreements) “without external interference; the right to national independence and sovereignty and the inalienable right of return to homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted.” Simultaneously, the UN officially regarded the Palestine Liberation Organisation as a representative of the Palestinian people and granted observer status.
synchronoptica
one year ago: Freigeld, money with an expiration date (with synchronoptica)
mrs french’s cat is missing: the 2008 Canadian horror film Pontypool about a viral outbreak that coopts language as a vector is a MetaFilter favourite
