I remember back as a child, I grew up around a lot of musically enriched people. One person we knew had artwork in his house like freehand coal caricatures of jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong. He also had scores very much like this one. I always felt they were simply made for the artistic appeal; the use of the visual affects musical manuscripts, especially those of classical music, can include. I felt they weren't intended to be performed in any fashion but this piece, Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz (Page One & Page Two), appears to actually have a performance aspect to it.

It really is quite amazing. The silliness-for-silliness-sake style holds brilliance. This piece poses as a perfect example of how humor is a powerful vehicle for creativity.

Yes, this piece has actually been performed. How anyone could decipher anything playable out of the dynamic range, madcap time signatures, the endless string of pauses and other almost random - in many cases made up - artifacts boggles the mind. In the very least, it's far beyond my musical ability. Nonetheless, here's one example I found on YouTube. Musicians dressed up in silly costumes, big joke glasses and cow outfits. Every command placed on a cue card and, in most cases, acted out as a visual performance. One can only guess if this specific performance comes close to the composer's envision. The sheet music indicates everything was "arranged by accident" so maybe even he doesn't know.

SPIN magazine recently released a free compilation album of covers for every track on Nirvana's Nevermind album to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its release. This compilation is a celebration of the legacy Nirvana created and the effect they had on popular music. The day it was released on their facebook page, I was giddy, couldn't download it quick enough. Since I was a pre-teen in the early 90's, I've always been a huge Nirvana fan. Like many other's my age, I wore my Incesticide t-shirt until eventually it evaporated in the wash.

Lot of the chatter I've been hearing have been mixed. There are those who are so rigged, the very idea of anyone doing a cover of any Nirvana song is unforgivable. I personally don't have that pretentious stick driven as far up my ass. After all, this is Nirvana we're talking about; the brainchild of Kurt Cobain. He had a great love for music, all music. He also loved covers, so I believe from the bottom of my heart he would have felt honored by this compilation.

I've listened to this album from start to end several times over the past few days. I feel it's not a perfect compilation but SPIN has done a pretty damn good job; for starters, you won't find Miley Cyrus' cover of 'Smells like Teen Spirit' on this disk.

Inspirational Bands get Involved.
I was pleased to see the Meat Puppets and The Vaselines on this album. Kurt had a large admiration for both of these bands and even covered some of their songs on the MTV Unplugged session. Them covering a couple tracks is completely natural and in the best taste.

I really can't be the first person to make the observation that Lady Gaga is beginning to look very much like Marilyn Manson. I watched Monday's Tonight Show this evening on Hulu and I couldn't help but find this striking resemblance.

It seems perfectly suitable for me to bring this up, even giving I try to concentrate on the musical aspects of pop-culture; but when an "artist" - and I use that word lightly in this case - cares more about her image in pop-culture than the music she puts on a CD, fashion becomes, forces itself, as being just as relevant to the medium as her music itself. As asinine this concept may be, this has been very much the case for the past 30 years. We've seen it start in the 80's with such debacles as The Culture Club and Madonna. Speaking of which, Lady Gaga is nothing more than a rehash between them. Or more specifically stated: Lady Gaga is the inbred child between Madonna and Marilyn Manson with a little "man glitter" sprinkled on top contributed from Boy George.

Since I brought up Madonna, my wife mentioned how the song Lady Gaga performed - Born This Way - at the Grammy Awards sounded to be ripped off from Madonna. I had to look back myself for I completely slept through the Grammy Awards. The Hollywood Gossip makes a pretty good case on how it sounds very much like Madonna's 1989 hit Express Yourself. Given how they both work from the same genre, "Shock Pop", it only seems reasonable to me their songs, after a while, would begin to sound very much the same. As easy as it would be to rag on her about this, 1. she doesn't hold the musical credibility for this to hurt her image and 2. I actually wouldn't expect any less from her.

Earlier this evening I tweeted how this time a year from now, Lady Gaga would look virtually identical to Marilyn Manson. The thought of Lady Gaga is bad enough and Lady Gaga taking her styling cues from Marilyn Manson is even worse; Now, imagine Lady Gaga as a dead ringer for Marilyn Manson while wearing her meat dress.

Don't rack your brain on that. I've gone ahead and photoshopped it for you.

"I'm a free bitch baby"
-Lady Gaga

If you're in your 30's and didn't have too much fun in the decade, like me you'd remember the 90's quite well. This video reminded me a big part of the early to mid-90's. I remember very well how all of society's problems seem to be blamed on pop-culture; and done so very haphazardly.

Take this example: This is a story from a small TV affiliate 5 o-clock news in Baltimore, Maryland. I'm guessing this is from around 91/92. They were doing a story on a string of arsons in the city. Very amazingly they open talking about the rash of fires but the story seems to be more about the song from MC 900 Ft. Jesus, "The City Sleeps".