music – Allison Thurman

I was a teenage vinyl pusher

Once upon a time (the 90s), I was a college radio DJ.

In high school, music was everything to me. I spent every waking hour finding it and listening to it. Because I could never do anything halfway, I ran down the rabbit hole of local indie record stores (not the local chain store-my tastes were too obscure for that) and went to record shows to hunt for the real rarities. I discovered new music through 120 Minutes, European penpals, and, yes, college radio.

My obsession extended to the (probably annoying) habit of sharing what (very little) I knew about music with anyone who would listen and many who wouldn’t. Starting around age 14, I constantly made unsolicited mixtapes for friends because “you need to hear this!” If someone didn’t listen to the same cool stuff I was, it was my duty to enlighten them. No fellow fans? Convert them. No scene? Build it.

Or as much as one can when one is in the exurbs with no car and a record collection never exceeding 150ish records, because I traded in as much as I bought. And my collection was primarily records, not the then-newer CD format. Proto-electronic dance music was my preference, and most remixes were (still are?) released in 12″ vinyl.

So my extracurricular trajectory once I hit campus was obvious.

By sophomore year, I played the dance show every other Tuesday in addition to my regular shift. Taking my own records meant dragging a heavy crate up four flights of stairs (the station had no elevator), but it was ok because I was sharing the Good Stuff. The occasional appreciative call assured me I was on the right track.

The next logical step was spinning at clubs and parties. I booked time in the station’s second studio to practice mixing, and when raving (finally!) hit Atlanta I grabbed it with both hands. But I never dragged my records into a club DJ booth.

Several things derailed me. I took a summer off and so lost seniority at the radio station, and with it, the dance show. I spent more time going out than working on my DJ skills. Worst, I dated a guy who discouraged my interest.

By the time I figured out this guy was a jerk, my collection had fallen out of date (then as now, new stuff comes out constantly) and it was too expensive and time-consuming to get back to where I’d left off.

Years passed. I pursued a variety of creative outlets. I broadened my musical horizons and learned just how narrow and shallow my musical “expertise” was. I’m hitting middle age as a reforming music snob who throttles down her recommendations in favor of just letting people enjoy things.

But I still have the records. And now I have a USB turntable.

desk hutch containing turntable playing a record, foregrounded by laptop screen running audio editing software — A Technics 1200 it’s not, but it’s mine and I dug it out of storage and made it work.

I’m finally digitizing everything because much as I love vinyl, I still think digital music is one of the goddamn triumphs of modern media. Yeah, I lose a little sound quality but I’ll cheerfully take a flash drive over a heavy a milk crate of records! I doubt I’ll get back to teenage-level obsession but it’s been nice to revisit old favorites and discover the occasional new (or, at least, new to me) track.

biweekly links 3-8-2017

A handful of UFO-related links as I mine my blog feeds:

NSA Interest in the Paranormal: following on last week’s post, it turns out the GB6 came out of a pre-existing culture of paranormal interest at the NSA dating back to the 1980s – see Jon Ronson’s “Men Who Stare At Goats” for more. Your taxpayer money at work.
Thanks to the X-Files, UFOs were trendy during the 1990s. Eat Static named this 1993 single after the Gulf Breeze sightings – not bad! Nothing overtly alien but you can dance to it:
‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Other Disco Galactic Themes’ by the Geoff Love Orchestra, 1978: Speaking of music, sci-fi geeks of a certain age remember the disco version of the Star Wars theme; here’s some info on how it (and other “space disco”) came to be.
The “Arrival” Movie – UFOs, Aliens, and the Rising of the Dead: I loved “The Arrival” and am always happy to read other “takes” on the movie, even when I disagree. Though frankly, the story is open-ended enough that it can encompass multiple interpretations.

my favorite anachronisms

I’m thrilled when a work of historical fiction in any media gets it just right. The “Wolf Hall”‘ miniseries’ period-correct under- and headwear, “The VVitch”‘s word-for-word dialogue from seventeenth century primary sources, Sarah Waters’ carefully researched nineteenth century lesbian lives. My overkill bibliography and trip to Prague are my effort to do the same for the Dee/Kelley book. One of the main reasons I want to finish the second draft by June is so I can seek sixteenth century-savvy beta readers at this year’s HNS conference. I need someone to catch my mistakes!

Having said this, I first came to historical fiction disguised as something else and thus my influences were inherently non-factual. Not just books either-my earliest influences were visual rather than textual. So I kinda love anachronisms if they’re done consciously and well.

Take Adam Ant, my first exposure to historical fashion remixing and probable first crush (yes, I am old). I saw his (excellent!) “Kings of the Wild Frontier” show back in January. Full of jangly spaghetti western guitars, whooping shouts and four-on-the-floor drums, the music is eclectic, but his aesthetic even more so. Take the video for “Dog Eat Dog”, a cross of New Romantic eyeliner, nineteenth century militaria, and Native American trappings:

The feathers and war paint have an uncomfortable whiff of cultural appropriation (never said my faves weren’t problematic). To his credit, when criticized by Native American leaders back in the day Adam invited them to his show and addressed their concerns, volunteering to axe his iconic look if they found anything offensive.

These days he’s ditched the white stripe in favor of a more eighteenth century “dandy highwayman” mix, including the swashbucklingest bicorn in rock.

Through Adam Ant fandom I discovered Vivienne Westwood, former punk turned fashion designer. Her 1981 Pirates collection is my favorite for obvious reasons, but I’m also tickled by her further variations on historic costume, like the mini crini and unisex corsetry. Here’s Westwood talking about her research process at the Wallace Collection:

Love it or hate it (and I’ve met folks of both stripes) “The Knight’s Tale” goes full on creative anachronism to portray medieval jousts as the Superbowls of their time. Contemporary music and tropes dance through the medieval(ish) background. It’s hard to beat an opening scene where the tiltyard crowds stomp out “We Will Rock You”:

Finally, one I can participate in: renaissance faires. I go to my local faire at least once a year to dress up, drink beer, and listen to bagpipes. Though my garb tends towards accurate-ish, everyone from stitch-for-stitch reenactors through deliberately out-of-place Trekkies finds a home at the pub sing. I could get snarky but it’s more fun to take renn faire as it is: six weeks of Halloween for grown ups! Here’s a video of some of last year’s acts showing the spectrum of aesthetic and anachronism, including more “medieval” Queen:

Would I ever write historical fantasy? Maybe, though I suspect my rigid mind and love of research would drown out any fantastical elements. Still, I have medieval aliens and an graphic novel about an executioner in my plotbunny file, so we’ll see.

What are your favorite mashups?

last to the party

I’m not the best at keeping up with trends. Maybe it’s age, maybe I’m just perpetually up to my ears in my own peculiar interests, but I don’t always know what’s happening in pop culture at large, even in my own bailiwick.

Take “Hamilton”. I first became vaguely aware of the play only because a fellow writer mentioned it on Facebook. At the time I chalked up her enthusiasm to her subject matter (historical fiction set in 18th century America), but it didn’t take long before half the people I knew were swooning over the soundtrack. Had I heard it? Wasn’t it awesome?

And I hadn’t. A musical about a founding father sounded like an interesting trick to me but then, I’m a history nerd. Alas, I’m a lazy/distracted history nerd and didn’t go much beyond Googling the play. Rationalizing that I couldn’t get much out of a soundtrack to something I’d never seen (and wasn’t likely ever to be able to!) I wandered off into other things.

Then a friend played the opening “Alexander Hamilton” track for me. Hip hop and history – I like it! I mused aloud that putting historical fact to modern music would make it relatable and memorable.

It wasn’t until this past summer that my husband caught the bug, and at his urging I finally downloaded the soundtrack for the Jamestown roadtrip.

Um, damn.

Every single track an earworm, memorable even on first hearing! Funny too – I didn’t know this was a comedy. Wait, it’s not – oh poor Eliza! Is this one about the Federalist Papers? Did this guy seriously just make dry political legalese cool?

I think I get it, finally. I’m not a “foaming-at-the-mouth-best-thing-since-sliced-bread” fan but I’m all in favor of translating history to appeal to modern audiences and “Hamilton” does this flawlessly. The new PBS making-of special is excellent, including not just performances but Miranda’s writing process: how he decided what to keep, cut, fictionalize, and compress from the historical record to tell a good story. Even the actors researched their characters, to the point of going to historic sites and collections [envy!]

So, I reckon I got there in the end. Anyone have something new to recommend?

biweekly links 9-7-2016

Mixed bag this week:

Montgomery County Student Awarded for Historical Fiction Graphic Novel – local (to me) high schooler awarded a scholarship to complete his graphic novel about Holocaust survivors. Serious stories like these can be effectively told through this format – John Lewis’ “March” series springs to mind. Will be interested to see how this turns out.
Historical Fiction Novel “The Eighth Day Brotherhood” Explores Art and the Occult in 1880s Paris – one of many novels about nineteenth century spiritualism that seem to be all over the place, but the addition of art moves it to the top of my “looking forward to” list.
Glam Rock & Yorkshire Occult: The Making Of Ben Myers’ “Turning Blue” – Myers’ own account of how he combined wildly disparate influences into a novel that sounds eerie as hell.
Exorcism and the Development of Ritual Magic (login required) – paper presented at the Birkbeck University of London’s Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination forum in 2015. EMPHASIS’ other offerings are worth a look as well.