Tapestryblog

soundsfamiliarpodcast:

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We all know a bad translation when we see one… or do we? Translations of all sorts can, at best, ensure our shared survival. And at worst, mistranslations have had varied, far-reaching and often disastrous effects, as basic as “all your base are belong to us” or as serious as botched postwar food aid.

This time it’s all about translation. What is it? Is it an art or a science? What does it mean to translate something correctly— and, more importantly, what happens when translation goes wrong? I spoke to Jay Rubin, translator of bestselling author Haruki Murakami, among others, to find out.

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soundsfamiliarpodcast:

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The Loudness War is the pejorative name given to the decades-long struggle to try and make the loudest record, to have that one song that’ll stand out above the flood of other sounds we hear, musical and non-musical, on a daily basis. Of course, with everybody competing for the next loudest record, all this has done is made that flood much, much louder. And people are starting to say enough!

Why is loudness bad? Is loudness bad? How loud is too loud? What do those shiny little plastic discs we used to pay twenty dollars for have to do with all this? What’s it going to take to end this thing once and for all? The answers to these questions—and some very loud music along the way—this time on Sounds Familiar.

Next week: “The Rule of Threes”

(Source: soundcloud.com)

soundsfamiliarpodcast:

Promo: “#1: The Drums from ‘Be My Baby’ and the Life of a Meme”

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What is a meme? How do they work? Who keeps them going?

In 1963, the hit song “Be My Baby,” produced by the legendary Phil Spector for the Ronettes, began with a drum beat. Bum. ba-Bum, CH! It’s hard to imagine a time when that hadn’t been heard before, because the following decades would bring dozens of songs that imitated the beat.

Just when did the drum beat go viral? And why? Like with anything else, digging deeper reveals surprising patterns and motives for something that might just seem like part of the woodwork.

That’s why I chose this topic for the first episode of Sounds Familiar, which is a podcast devoted to finding those surprising patterns and motives. It’s a clear example of how, when we look closely enough, nothing is really mundane or boring— there’s a wealth of curious information just under the surface that helps us connect better to the world around us.

Sounds Familiar is engaging and informative. It’s a hypertextual adventure for your ears. So check it out.

-BC

oldhollywood:

Chet Baker - My Funny Valentine