Comments on: She Had a Question, 1916

By: kevinf

kevinf — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:04:04 +0000

Ardis, I’ve been on vacation, but I think I may be older than you.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:59:04 +0000

… I feel so old …

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:49:59 +0000

I also have to recommend The Dead Milkmen for generational bonding. We sing their songs together then we crack up. It’s a great family joy for us.

By: Tatiana

Tatiana — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:10:45 +0000

kevinf (22) Yes! I’ve just learned about that episode, and what Dylan’s reaction was. Apparently then a group of fans followed him around from concert to concert just so they could boo him. They were truly upset, apparently. But it’s never a good idea to argue with an artist about their art, since they always get the last word. I think “It Ain’t Me, Babe” and “Positively 4th Street” were both parts of his response to the old folk scene.

Music history is as much fun as Mormon history, it turns out. =) Wasn’t it awesome that the music mattered so much to everyone back then? That’s the way it feels to me, like music is crucially important to life itself.

The Shinns is another group my son has exposed me to. I like that song from the “Garden State” soundtrack. Pearl Jam I got from another friend. I think my favorite from them is Yellow Ledbetter, especially the guitar solos and the part around 3:50 that goes “oooooooooh”, you know that part? I played that part over and over about 1000 times once. =)

Too bad about Radiohead, though. I wish I could explain to you how to like them. Their coolness lies in the time signatures quite often. I first fell for them around the time when “OK, Computer” came out (ages ago), so I’ll recommend from that cd the song Paranoid Android, with its awesome chorus with three bars of sevens then an 8 (or two fours). I also love the alternation between the hard rocking parts and the sweet sad harmonies in the “rain down” part.

Another great one off OK Computer is “The Tourist”. First of all, it’s in threes, which is delicious after the unvarying fours of most rock music. And even more cool, the musical phrase is in nine bars rather than something normal like eight or four. Unusual numbers of beats per bar and bars per phrase keep the whole thing feeling very lively and a bit disjointed and off-kilter, which is a perfect fit for the meaning of the song. Then the slowness of the beat somehow sets off perfectly the “1000 feet a second”. You can’t forget the cool way “idiot” sounds in British. Then comes the bizarre time thing that happens at the end of each verse phrase where your ear’s expecting two bars of 3 beats per bar and instead gets one bar of four beats. This unpredictable thing happens predictably, once you know the song, and it’s just so delightful. They keep you on your musical toes all the time. I’m always going “Wait. What did they just do? They didn’t!”

I still can’t figure out the time for Pyramid Song. I just have to listen and enjoy. I can’t sing along.

But the greatest thing of all about their interesting time things is they work really well viscerally and not just intellectually.

I think their harmonies are equally cool, but I’m totally self-taught as a musician and I don’t know enough to understand what I’m hearing there. Just that it has the same weird-but-wonderful feeling about it as the time.

(Sorry for the musical threadjack, Ardis!)

Anyway, Radiohead is amazing.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:48:37 +0000

Tatiana, I’ve read the same accounts about the Rite of Spring debut performance. Kind of like Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport festival, back in 1963, was it?

Sorry about the Radiohead, but the more I listen, the less I like. My kids have turned me on to (years ago) Pearl Jam, Green Day, more recently The Shinns, and some others.

Gets to be a contest to see who’s corrupting who, I think.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:13:06 +0000

I don’t know, but I blame dem meddlin’ Marmonz for it. I would guess that at least some of the community property states (Louisiana, Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona) inherited the property systems of colonial governments, viz., France, Spain, and Mexico.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:51:51 +0000

Thanks, Mark B. and Justin, for the information on property rights. It’s been at least ten years since I’ve done any reading on the topic, and I’m starting to forget details like the differences between community property and common law states. Utah is not a community property state, if I remember correctly. One of the only Western states which is not. (And why is that?)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:50:41 +0000

Thank you, Confutus — You’re right, and I wanted to say exactly what you said (especially your last paragraph) but I thought I’d wait until after next week when the library has reopened and I can quote from exactly the kind of lesson you remember. This is high on my list. Thank you.

By: Confutus

Confutus — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:06:41 +0000

There was almost certainly comparable advice to young men on their obligation to protect and encourage the virtue of young women rather than taking selfish advantage of them. (I say almost because I’m not the historian Ardis is and don’t have her access to the sources). To my knowledge, responsible self-discipline has always been an essential part of the masculine ideal, and the preaching and practice of virtue was (and is) taken as a part of Priesthood responsibility.

Since this column was addressed specifically to young women, it’s not surprising that it doesn’t speak to the young men.

One might say that it isn’t girls’ responsibility to purify and uplift their boy friends any *less* than it’s boys’ responsibility to purify and uplift their girl friends.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:42:34 +0000

Ardis-

It’s always a treat to read the blog. Thanks for posting some interesting (and often very entertaining) stuff.