Communicate with cherished close friends and family endlessly ...

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Source: http://librehat.info/communicate-with-cherished-close-friends-and-family-endlessly

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Theodor Adorno and ?The Culture Industry? ? Art History Unstuffed

THEODOR ADORNO

(1903-1969)

AND?

THE CULTURE INDUSTRY

Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) was born in the sun of Hollywood, beside the pools of Santa Monica, in the capital of mass culture designed to entertain and to (literally) stupefy the American public.? It would seem that the focal point for such a book, popular culture, is a slender reed for such a weighty philosophical discourse, but the authors Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer were German refugees who understood all too well the power of mass media.? Although in their early years in the Frankfurt School, or the Institute of Social Research, the scholars attached to this group were Marxist, they were not doctrinaire and were not orthodox.? Led by Horkheimer, the philosophers sought a way to update Marxism and to get beyond the failure of social revolution and to understand why this uprising among the lower classes did not take place.

Part of the very notion of ?Late Capitalism? is the concept that economic forces invade all relationships and all aspects of a lived social life.? In other words, the economic model, fueled by the profit motive, is now in full control.? In contrast to earlier modes of Capitalism (or Feudalism), which were limited in their effects, Late Capitalism is theoretically limitless, thanks in no small part of technology.? It is modern technology that spreads the ideas of the dominant group currently in control of society through radio, film and published documents.? Marx certainly anticipated the role of the commodity as creating ??desire? but he could not have envisioned the extension of capitalist control through technology.

Even before the Frankfurt School was forced to leave German in 1933, it was clear that the modern world had gone beyond the old-fashioned version of Marxism and that other disciplines had to be brought to a new critique of a new culture.? The culture of the 20th century was ?administered? and the administration of this new society was facilitated by the ?culture industry.?? It was this unholy alliance between state and entertainment that had caught the attention of Adorno and Horkheimer and the Frankfurt School during the rise of Fascism in Germany.?? And now the exiled philosophers were at Ground Zero of the Culture Industry?Hollywood.

Theodor W. Adorno was born Theodor Adorno-Wiesengrund, his father?s (Jewish) name retained only as an initial.? He took his Italian mother?s name, perhaps in honor of their mutual love of music, perhaps to highlight the non-Jewish half of his parentage, and almost certainly to veil the Jewish-ness of the Frankfurt School when the scholars moved to New York City.? Just as Walter Benjamin was a poet as much as he was a philosopher, so too Adorno was as much a musician as he was a philosopher.? Adorno wanted to become a professional pianist but lacked the talent necessary for such a career.? He drifted into philosophy and, influenced by early twentieth century Neo-Kantianism, took up the task of making the theories of Karl Marx relevant to the new century.? His philosophy was always about praxis, but, paradoxically, he refused to write in a way that could be easily understood or paraphrased.? According to the authoritative scholar of the Frankfurt School, Martin Jay, his style of writing is so dense and so obscure that it has a name all its own: ?Adorno Deutsch? that resists easy translation.? However, Dialectic of ?Enlightenment, perhaps because it was co-written, is a fairly straightforward book to read and, because of its readability, the central notion of the Culture Industry has had a profound impact upon Neo-Marxist thinking and upon its cousin in critique, Critical Theory and upon modern thinkers from Jurgen Habermas to Guy Debrod.

Adorno, like his colleagues, had inherited the notion of the superiority of Germany?s Kultur, as opposed to commercialized Zivilisation of other nations, such as America.? The role of Kulture in Germany was what might also be called ?high culture,? which would be opposed to popular culture or the mass culture of the entertainment industry.? High culture enlightens and lifts up, while low or popular culture flattens and homogenizes public ?taste.?? Decades later, Pierre Bourdieu would point out that ?taste? is, in fact, a social divider, marking out high class ?taste? from low class ?taste.? Perhaps because of such a class divide, or perhaps because he had a background as a classical pianist, Adorno had a famously limited appreciation for popular culture.

He was an unrepentant snob and, even after living in the United States for years, he could not understand the value of jazz.? Some have accused Adorno of being a racist for this blind spot, but it is more likely that he disliked the improvisational nature of this form of music that seemed so casual, without structure or compositional permanency. Having lived in Hollywood, Adorno watched Walt Disney appropriate Stravinsky and, after the War, he rejected any possibility of high ?culture? and thought of culture as ?neutral and ready-made? simply because it could be borrowed and reused for any purposes. Rather than being a living, growing creative enterprise, culture, by whatever name?high, low, popular?replicated itself.? Nevertheless,?Adorno maintained ?his task as ?cultural critic? and produced a large body of works as a music critic.

The perspective of Dialectic of Enlightenment was also impacted by the role that mass entertainment played in the Weimar Republic and in the rise of the Nazis. ?In New York, the Frankfurt School could view the cunning and dangerous use of the apparatus of media on behalf of Nazi propaganda from a safe distance.? During the Second World War, the scholars witnessed a full-scale effort in America to deploy mass entertainment and mass information to keep Americans patriotically involved in what would be a long and costly war. ?In 1943 Max Horkheimer had to leave New York and go to Los Angeles for his health. Here, he was joined by Theodor Adorno and the two Germans joined a large colony of??migr?s?and exiles in Hollywood.? There they could watch the local ?industry??mass entertainment?at work. The resulting book?Dialectic of Enlightenment?contained the essay ?The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,? a seminal study of contemporary mass media.?The book, written by Adorno and Horkheimer just after the end of the war, is reflective of their Hollywood experiences.? But the essays also recall their experiences as witnesses to the rise of fascism.? The book was originally published by a Dutch publishing firm and was reissued in 1970, a year after Adorno?s death.

The Culture Industry, as the name implies, is part of the Industrial Revolution, a product of industrial technology.? The industrial aspect had long since taken over the ?cultural? aspects and, since the late nineteenth century, ?culture? had been co-opted by a vast capitalist profit-making machine.? The result was, for Adorno, a great loss to humanity.? Unlike his friend Walter Benjamin, Adorno could not envision any possibility that technology could be used to either arouse or liberate the masses.? Indeed in his time, culture was a captive of corporations that used music and dance, the performing arts, to make a profit.? In order to make this profit, the culture proffered to the public had to appeal to the greatest number. ?The result was that ?high? culture had to be supported by a small and wealthy and dedicated group of those who were educated enough to appreciate it.? There was little profit in this elitist form of culture until the technology of the record player could be used to sell records to a wider audience.

Mass culture, or culture for the masses, was vastly more popular and profitable.? Popular culture emerged from the lower classes, from the folk, from the middle classes, but these distinctions were lost under the homogenizing impact of the industry, which needed to level out differences to sell to the greatest number of buyers.? The enterprises that manufacture and promote and sell ?culture? on an ?industrial? scale are capitalist in nature and, in the process of selling their product, they sell capitalism and capitalist ideology as well.? For example, the creation of the ?star? and the ?cult? of worship around the star him or herself gives rise to the illusion among the worshipers that a rise to stardom is in her or his grasp.? Thus the dull truth of class division and unequal opportunity is overlaid by unrealistic hope.

In her book on Adorno, Culture Industry Revisited: Theodor W. Adorno on Mass Culture, Deborah Cook begins with Plato?s Allegory of the Cave and states, ?Adorno transformed, in broad but clear strokes, the ancient allegory of the cave into an explosive critique of the culture industry.?? The idea is that people prefer the cave and its shadows to the reality outside in the bright sunlight, but the real question is why?? Why do people prefer the commodity to class equality?? Why do people while away hours in a darkened theater?? Marx, long before Freud, understood that the commodity was a ?symptom? of a desire for something else, and Adorno connected Marx and Freud through the Culture Industry, the cave of the masses.? As Adorno wrote, ?This dreamless art for the people fulfills the dreamy idealism which went too far for idealism in its critical form.? Parenthetically, it should be pointed out that the ?psychology? of the culture industry differed between Germany and America.? In Germany, the culture industry, especially under the Nazis, led the citizens into regressive pleasures and towards a narcissistic worship of the ?Leader,? Adolf Hitler.? In America, the culture industry distracts the view of the people away from economic and social issues and points them towards the pleasure of escapism through entertainment.

Whatever nationalistic differences an audience may share, the result is the same?indoctrination of the masses into a sameness that serves the needs of the masters. ??The whole world is passed through the filter of the culture industry,? the authors stated. ?According to Adorno, the individual does not exist but has been reconfigured into a ?social object? shaped for the administered world, ruled by capitalism.? Earlier work by scholars of the Frankfurt School showed that the role of the father in a patriarchal society had been supplanted by the state, which in concert with the Culture Industry, now controlled the collective cultural psyche.? It matters not whether the society is totalitarian or ?non-totalitarian,? the result will be the same?a society under enchantment and trained to seek pleasure over confrontation with the authorities. The question is who is in control?

The forces which generate the economic engine behind the Culture Industry are not unknown but, to be more precise, are abstract.? The Culture Industry is not ruled by people but by profit and the need to acquire a monopolistic position in order to acquire more profit.? Marx?s metaphor of an ?engine? is an apt one in that it conjures up a sense of a force that no one controls or commands.? The Culture Industry is particularly efficient as definitionally it is a collaborative enterprise composes of many people all of whom want to earn a living, laboring away as cogs in a wheel, thinking they are being ?artists? or that they merely want to entertain.

The real workings of culture are invisible to them, for the true purpose of any system is to preserve itself and the Culture Industry protects itself by calling up emotions that produce the pleasurable and manufacture and artificial desire for more pleasure.? The industry, whether it is the movies or pornography, has the same result: reification.? The individual is dissolved into abstract relations between, not people, but things.? These ?social things,? so to speak, these reified people can now be compartmentalized and labeled and thus controlled by the capitalist system that has need of their services.? Capitalism appears to be ?rational? and ?logical? and claims to be ?inevitable? but in order to function, psychological forces within humans must be both suppressed and deployed.

Culture becomes a commodity that provides pleasure-giving entertainment to the repressed masses that are allowed to express their regressive and childlike impulses and instincts through emotional music and exciting films. The result is the replacement of any social critique by the masses with spectacle.? People, the audience, is thus, through spectacle, is trained into certain habits of thought and taught to think and act against their own best interests and to instead align themselves with the abstract powers of capitalism which themselves become reified into political slogans.? Politics follows the lead of the movies.? Adolf Hitler understood himself as a film star and his ?director? Albert Speer created magnificent sets for his leader at Nuremberg. The essay also commented on the F?hrer?s use of a new instrument of propaganda, the radio:

The National Socialists knew that broadcasting gave their cause statue as the printing press did to the Reformation.? The F?hrer?s metaphysical charisma, invented by the sociology of religion, turned out finally to be merely the omnipresence of his radio addresses, which demonically parodies that of the divine spirit.

While reading Dialectic of Enlightenment one begins to recognize the voice and the thoughts and the preoccupations of Adorno verses Horkheimer. Threaded throughout the essay on the culture industry are Adorno?s ideas on aesthetics.? He wrote little about artists, who were once shielded from the market by their patrons, and more about the state of ?art? itself in the culture industry.? Although Adorno?s aesthetic viewpoint is more fully laid out in his books on music, he often mentioned the fact that art is no longer a privileged object but simply one more commodity in a world of consumerism.? Influenced by Walter Benjamin?s concept of ?aura,? Adorno felt that art retained some of its mystic only to the extent the relationship between art and the marketplace was disguised and kept form the art audience. ?Museums, as much as art galleries, are part of the larger cultural industry, one hawking art for profit and the other corralling the items for entertainment and exhibition value in an artificially ?sacred? space.

Adorno did not live long enough to see the rise of the Internet and the subsequent rise of Information technology that, at this writing, is still (precariously and contentiously) in the hands of ?the people.?? He was well aware that the culture industry of his time did not all allow for a response, but now the one-sidedness of communication has changed. ?The watcher and answer back. ?Adorno would certainly have pointed out that however ?democratic? the Web might seem, the main concern of the corporations has been how to monetize its potential profit.

As the world has been flooded with information or facts or knowledge, people have replicated the habits of thinking taught by the Culture Industry. Confrontation with information that one does not agree with causes ?cognitive dissonance? for the viewer, and to protect each group from the minds of other groups, various economic forces have divided and have created separate spaces so that disparate entities can receive pleasure by hearing what they want to hear and seeing what they want to see.? Adorno?s macro view of a totalitarian Culture Industry has been replace by the reality of many micro ?cultures,? whether as cable television stations, newspapers with a certain slant, or Internet outlets on the Web.

According to Martin Jay?s The Dialectical Imagination, the book by Horkheimer and Adorno became an underground must-read that fueled anti-bourgeois students in the sixties.? This connection, whether appropriate or not, whether or not the students understood the scholarship of the Frankfurt School, was perhaps the cause for the decades long opposition to its philosophy from the right wing.? Adorno?s death is claimed, by many, to have been hastened by the assault of his rebelling students who chastised the old revolutionary for not being revolutionary enough.? The repudiation of his students and their accusations that he had mistreated Walter Benjamin broke the heart of the scholar who had worked so hard to preserve the writer?s memory and works.? Benjamin?s writings deeply affected the thinking of Adorno who, in many ways, carried on his earlier work on popular culture. Adorno never fully recovered psychology from the shock of being exposed the Counter Culture and he died in 1969.

If you have found this material useful, please give credit to

Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette and?Art History Unstuffed.? ?Thank you.

info@arthistoryunstuffed.com

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Tags: Culture Industry Revisited: Theodor W. Adorno on Mass Culture, Deborah Cook, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), Frankfurt School, Institute of Social Research, Late Capitalism, Martin Jay, Max Horkheimer, The Culture Industry, The Dialectical Imagination, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin

Source: http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/theodor-adorno-and-the-culture-industry/

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Bay Area Property Management Company, Stokley Properties Inc ...

By Property Tycoon ? on February 24, 2012

Stokley Properties Inc. discusses the state of the rental market, which is still red hot in the Bay Area, the greater Walnut Creek and the Contra Costa area.

Walnut Creek, CA (PRWEB) February 24, 2012

Stokley Properties Inc., a Bay Area property management company that handles properties in Concord, San Ramon, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland, offers advice for landlords and property owners. The rental market is still hot; however, some landlords are still making the mistake of pricing their properties too high and at a price that is not warranted.

Many owners are not experienced property managers. They believe that because the market is hot, they can get the price they want for their property, regardless of its condition. This is absolutely not true. Clients who are well off will pay top dollar but only when the property deserves the price. Many property owners may only own one rental property and have not had the opportunity to truly understand the dynamics of the property management industry.

Prospective renters must be aware that rental is a highly competitive market. They need to be prepared.

Stokley Properties has been offering expertise and valuable advice to tenants and property managers throughout the East Bay since 1989. It is more than just a property management firm. It also specializes in investment properties throughout the East Bay and Northern California. Stokley will offer sound investment advice to assist investors in achieving real estate goals. Whether the client is looking to buy or sell an investment, Stokley Properties will lend its expertise to maximize a client?s investment value.

?It?s not easy to find the right property management company. Most companies lack the true dedication and attention to detail it takes to achieve success with the properties, the tenants and the landlords. But, Stokley Properties is different. From the first phone call to the follow-up, property prep and ultimate securing of an appropriate tenant, Joe Stokley and team take care of business from A to Z,? Debbie Rossetto of Legacy Real Estate Associates said.

For more information about Stokley Properties Inc., call 925-658-1415, or visit the company on the web at www.stokleypropertieseastbay.net and www.stokleyproperties.net. Stokley Properties Inc. is located at 1630 North Main St., Suite 54, in Walnut Creek.

About Stokley Properties Inc.

Stokley Properties Inc. is a licensed property management company and California real estate brokerage firm. It provides property management services in Contra Costa and Alameda counties in the San Francisco East Bay Area.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebproperty-management/bay-area/prweb9224566.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/02/24/prweb9224566.DTL

Source: http://www.property-for-rent.org/bay-area-property-management-company-stokley-properties-inc-announces-a/

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Utilizing your Wireless Phone to Get Better Grades | Articles ...

For sure, the smart phone is one of your best investments. Any businessman, professional, an average smart phone owner or even a student can find this really useful. There are so many ways that the smart phone can help one succeed in school. This article covers the various benefits that you can get when you use a smart phone in school.

The smart phone is among the greatest creations brought by technological innovation and this never phases out but it keeps evolving and the line of phones that are coming out in the market continues to improve. The smart phone is great for communication as this is portable and really light to carry. Through the use of the smart phone, one is able to take advantage of the diversified features and there is new innovation coming along. You may have noticed the increasing performance of various phones. The various manufacturers of smart phones out there are always thinking of ways of how they can improve the smart phones.

Today, people just don?t see the smart phone as a device utilized for communication. The mobile phone has plenty of purposes and this has dramatically changed the lifestyle of the modern people since this has helped in making their lives easy. The smart phone has great attributes and there are advantages as well as disadvantages to this device and these are judged according to its function and performance. The smart phone really offers a fantastic advantage to the users. The smart phone has excellent technology and there are many functions that the customers are able to use them for.

The smart phone is stylish and performs fast and because of this, students are also using them. There are various applications in a smart phone and this can meet your expectations. The smart phone comes with a great collection of advantages that is worth of great credit. Among the great uses of the phone is for communicating with group mates in school or classmates. Through this, you can easily locate your classmates when there is a need to discuss something or talk about a certain project or any research that need to be done together. As simple as this, a smart phone can always keep you connected with others.

Another fantastic benefit that you can obtain from the smart phone, contributing to your success, is its usability for editing presentations. For example, if you have a certain schoolwork and you require quick editing for a project presentation, then you can do it with the device. Since you are using your smart phone all the time and you are carrying it from time to time, you should purchase a protective case. There are lots of cell phone covers that you can find in the market. Through these items, you?ll be able to ensure that your gadget is safe. Cell phone cases or phone covers, as they are also called, are essential in bringing out the style and personality of a mobile phone.

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InfoWorld's Windows 7 Security Deep Dive: The expert guide (InfoWorld)

[unable to retrieve full-text content]InfoWorld - Windows 7 has been warmly received and swiftly adopted by businesses, with improvements over Vista such as a friendlier UAC mechanism, the ability to encrypt removable media as well as hard drive volumes, broader support for strong cryptographic ciphers, hassle-free secure remote access, and sophisticated protection against Trojan malware in the form of AppLocker, to name a few.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20120222/tc_infoworld/186805

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The Other Mormon Candidate

Yeah Samak?, on the other hand, is a candidate nearly all Mormons can get behind. And many have. Utah?s conservative Republican governor, Gary Herbert, endorses Samak? in a video that appears on the candidate?s website, calling Samak? ?a wonderful man and an inspired leader.? Next to his endorsement is one from Warner Woodworth, a professor at BYU?s Marriott School of Management who has openly questioned Romney?s dedication to the Mormon gospel because of his lack of professed care for the poor. Woodworth praises Samak? for promoting the kind of social entrepreneurship he himself has long championed; Samak?, he says, wants to ?find ways to build economic self-reliance from the bottom up instead of the top down.?

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=5248fac5cc633f3edf42f89b94d7606d

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Mike Ragogna: Trampled By Turtles' EPK Exclusive, Plus Conversations With Owl City's Adam Young, moe.'s Chuck Garvey, and Wounded Warriors

2012-02-22-American.jpg

A Conversation with Wounded Warriors During Grammy Rehearsals

During Grammy rehearsals, I had the privilege of interviewing four veterans who were at the event courtesy of the Wounded Warriors organization, their host being Annie Nelson from American Soldier Network. Here is our conversation that occurred on February 11, 2011. FYI, we were informed that Whitney Houston died just minutes after the interview concluded.

2012-02-22-photo.JPG
L-R: Richard Gonzales, Jake Henry, Sara Bryant, Chairperson Annie Nelson, Ryan Seacrest, and Blake Bibbins / photo credit: Mike Ragogna / engineered by Theo Shier


2012-02-22-51zrdbfYeL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Mike Ragogna: Okay, "Fireflies" was a major hit for a certain group we like to call Owl City except the group is a "he" named Adam Young. Fair introduction?

Adam Young: That was good, yeah, that was. It was one of a kind, but it was wonderful.

MR: (laughs) So, Adam Young of Owl City or just plain Owl City or Adam Young, can you fill in the audience about your new DVD Live from Los Angeles, what that tour was about, your history and like five other questions I haven't asked yet?

AY: Sure, sure. The DVD was really just a fun way to capture what has become such a big thing, at least for me, in terms of where I came from, you know, where I grew up, my roots as sort of an aspiring musician. So, just this last year, filming this DVD in LA was really kind of a culmination to date of this tiny little project by this one, solitary, shy kid from Minnesota. All of a sudden, three years later, here we are in LA filming our first DVD. It was just kind of a fun way to capture the moment and really see it as a tangible thing. But certainly for me, starting out as a musician, it was very much the introverted shy kid from a very small town, the only child, just started to write music for fun, just as an escape, really, just to get out of the everyday mundane life. Music has always been my vehicle to sort of get out of myself, so that's how it started. It's crazy because never in a million years would I have ever thought that I'd be here where I am. So, I am very, very thrilled to be able to do what I love.

MR: This concert was filmed at the Nokia. How incredible was that venue?

AY: It's incredible, it's amazing. It's like a giant, giant recording studio. I mean, it's this amazing room with just incredible acoustics and everything's treated. You know how everything in LA is like 10% better in video and audio and everything technological. It was a huge honor to play there.

MR: How would you describe your music?

AY: I think it's very much in the pop umbrella but it is very much electronic by nature, and certainly, that kind of pop-electronic hybrid is something I've always been really interested in because it allows the memorable polished pop melodies that stick in your head, music to sing along with. I think the electronic nature of it, since I'm kind of a quirky guy, really allows me to be a passionate artist with a paintbrush and a blank canvas. It's like you can do anything, and suddenly it's one kid, a producer, alone in his bedroom on his computer. I can suddenly be a conductor in front of a symphony and it's just endless, and that's what I really
love about it.

MR: You have the studio part down, obviously, and that's comfortable. But how would you describe your relationship with an audience in a live setting?

AY: You know, for me, it's always kind of changing, certainly for the better. When I started playing live on the road and started touring about two years ago, I realized that performing in front of people was just the tip of the iceberg for me. There is a sort of irony that I was never in a band or choir or orchestra growing up. I never sang in church, my parents weren't really musicians or even music consumers at all, so the idea of standing up in front of people and performing or speaking or anything with people watching was pretty scary. So, two years ago, I was just kind of this evil genius mad scientist off stage just behind his laptop hiding behind screens and his computer. It was a challenge to bring that sense of quirkiness and that pop sensibility that appears on the record and blow that up bigger than life and bring it to the stage and make it fun and make it big and make it interesting because it is so different. It's not just based on guitar, drums and keyboards. It's got more to it on the record and that was a fun challenge. That connection to the audience, I think, having gone through the change has only grown. It's a lot easier now for me to be the front man and to connect with the audience and that's a big part of the show. That's important.

MR: When you're recording your studio albums, do you have a sense of what you're going to present live? Or might it be vice-versa, live affecting your studio recording process?

AY: Having been on the road nonstop for the last few years, being on the road six months of the year the last few years, it certainly influences how I go back into the studio because I'm thinking that live performances sort of influence a lot of things like what key is the song going to be because if I'm going to sing the intro down an octave, so how can I arrange the song? Or, what key should it be in so I can sing it full voice in a live setting, which is very much different given the energy and everybody in the room, than just by yourself in the vocal booth in the studio. So, yeah, things like that certainly influence it. That's what I love about it. If I was just a studio guy--and I do love everything about the studio--but certainly the music would be in a very different place if the touring was not in the picture. It's really fun how both parts of it really influence each other and really steer the music into really interesting directions to follow. It's always evolving and I love that.

MR: Adam, you're a strong Christian. Do those topics often come into your material? Are you often categorized as a "Christian" act in addition to being a pop or electronic artist?

AY: You know, that's something I've always been interested to watch from the sidelines and to kind of see where people inherently categorize me as an artist. I've never wanted to go out and say, "Here's where I belong and here's where my music should be categorized along these other artists," or in whatever circles. I've always tried to make sure that my faith was part of the music writing and I was never sort of putting on a mask or trying to be somebody I wasn't. But given that the songs are certainly very honest and up front and maybe kind of brave in that respect. I'm certainly not opposed to people filing the project name amongst other things that are similar as far as content. It's always interesting to see what's going on without having a specific say. I think a lot of times people are looking to the artist to say, "Are you calling yourself a Christian band or not? Give us something we can run with," and when the artist is silent, it's interesting to see where culture or the industry as a standard will place you. So, it's been cool seeing me placed in the Christian world and sometimes not and sometimes in between, and it's always been really compelling to watch when it happens.

MR: You've had huge success, especially with the song "Fireflies." But after watching Live from Los Angeles, which of these performances do you look at and you go, "Wow, I really like that"?

AY: You know, it's a chain reaction thing. The intro dips down in the middle and just kind of pulls out. It's just solo voice and piano. Then, at the end, it just ramps back up. The few times when I've watched it all of the way through, I think I've always been really inwardly proud where it's like, "Wow, at the end, I actually pulled it off and I actually did it and here's this nobody from nowhere." Suddenly, I can watch this DVD--that's been the last 3 or 4 years--of a lot of hard work, energy and time, blood, sweat, and tears all in this tangible performance. Once I get to the end of this, it's like one of those rides, like a rollercoaster.

MR: Let's talk about your influences. One of them is seems Thomas Newman, of course, from the Newman dynasty that includes Randy, Alfred and Lionel. How did Thomas influence you?

AY: Growing up, I was always a big fan of the Pixar films. Thomas Newman was very influential on me because of the films Finding Nemo and Wall-E. He did most of the scores for those. He's done endless film scores that have been wonderful. I've always connected with him more than any other film composer. There's some quality to what he does and it's amazing. You can play the first few seconds of any of his pieces and you know right away that it's him because it sounds like nobody else. I think that's sort of what it means to be an artist. I think it's inherently interesting to be recognized that way.

MR: Can you go into your humble origins, which has something to do with Coca-Cola, right?

AY: Yeah, it does. About three or four years ago, I was living in my hometown of about 20,000 people and I was working for Coca-Cola doing the warehouse job thing. I wasn't going to college and I was looking for the next break. It didn't seem to be on the horizon at all, so I was very much stuck at work everyday. I really didn't like it. So, because of this mundane world that I was stuck in, I started creating, started dreaming and started writing. Suddenly, I could sort of escape from where I was, suddenly I could see the world or go anywhere and do anything or be anybody through writing and through lyrics and through
music. I wasn't really a guy with a plan to make records, put out records, write songs, do music videos or tour or all of the things I've been blessed with the last few years because it really came out of nowhere for me.

MR: What advice would you have for new artists?

AY: I would say I've never been incredible with advice. But to somebody making music on their own, my advice is to just make sure that whatever you're creating is very much pure and very much heartfelt so at the end of the day, you would be just as happy if the song were to get finished. And if it goes to number one or if no one else in the world hears it, you feel just as proud either way because you created it. What the song is saying and what it means to you, I think that is the test. You're not writing for the radio, the charts, or for Billboard, you're just doing what you're passionate about, and I think that's the heart of it.

MR: Adam, lately, you've been performing a song called "I Hope You Think of Me," which is a precursor to your fourth studio album, which will be released later this year. Can you give us any hints about it?

AY: Yeah, I'm actually really hard at work hoping for a release this summer. I'm just grinding away, just trying to create a lot of new material. I feel like a lot of the new songs are very much more dance-oriented. I've always been influenced by European trance music, a lot of the Dutch DJs have always been very influential on me. Yeah, it's coming along, 10-12 songs written, so it's just that middle phase, so it's really exciting.

MR: You'll be touring.

AY: Yeah, we're shooting for August/September in North America and hopefully, winding up the rest later this year.

MR: OK, speaking of winding up, I've had a very generous amount of your time and I really appreciate it. Any words of wisdom from Adam Young aka Owl City?

AY: I guess I've never been that philosophical or anything. As far as moving forward, as my crazy journey has taught me, live every moment as if it's your last, because it really is true that you never know what you have until it's gone. So, really just try to hang on to every moment and cherish it.

MR: Beautiful, very nicely said. All the best with everything, Adam. As far as that fourth studio album, we'll be waiting with bated breath, whatever that means.

AY: OK, I really appreciate it.

Transcribed by Brian O'Neal

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES - STARS AND SATELLITES

Been Trampled By Turtles lately? Here's your chance, with their new video, The Making of Stars And Satellites, the album to be released on April 10. This HuffPost exclusive features the songs "Keys to Paradise," "Widower's Heart" and "Midnight on the Interstate from the new album.


2012-02-22-51XPId3348L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

A Conversation with moe.'s Chuck Garvey

Mike Ragogna: So? What happened to the La Las?

Chuck Garvey: They temporarily went "bye bye," then we got sad and asked them to come back. They were in the outro of "Suck A Lemon." When John Travis, who produced/mixed, took them out of the first mix of the song, Rob asked where they went. It was funny and then it stuck!

MR: You're familiar with the group The LAs? Was this also some sort of unconscious tribute to them as well?

CG: Not at all. Nothing against them, it just came from the silly la la chorus...

MR: How did it feel having a producer helm this one?

CG: Great! We needed someone else to bounce everything off of...and to mix. We know how to do all this stuff, but having that objective, capable outsider to help get something new, while taking over the workload that "producing" entails, let us just be musicians and work on our immediate tasks. Creativity in the studio can get steamrollered by the technical workload, scheduling, etc. He really enabled us to get it done quickly and keep the quality high.

MR: Let's get into some of the songs on What Happened To The LA LA's. Your song "Suck A Lemon" has something to do with Halloween. Can you go into that?

CG: We asked our fans to come up with a theme for our Halloween show two years ago. They ultimately voted in favor of "The Electric Lemoe.nade Acid Test," one of many submissions. We said that each band member would write a song specifically for this show, so I wrote "Suck A Lemon." It went over ok, I guess! I like the newer, heavy treatment we came up with in the studio.

MR: Lyrically, Al Schnier's song "Downward Facing Dog" is a very personal song. What's the story behind that one?

CG: He has said that it has a lot to do with his ties to family, having parents as well as being one. Realizing his place in a continuum, perhaps? I also get a sense of mortality that is maybe fleeting, but also rewarding.

MR: You've been performing "Bones Of Lazarus" for like ten years. What's the story behind "Lazarus"'s studio resurrection?

CG: It started out life as "Lazarus," then Rob's brother John wrote a story called "The Bones Of Lazarus." After the new arrangement for this album, Rob brought out the new title. This new version has an added verse, as well as a section of an instrumental segue we call "Ricky Martin" grafted in.

MR: How would you describe moe.'s sound these days?

CG: We have resurrected our own straight up rock sound for many songs, but there are always a bunch of tricks up our sleeves. Plus Jim plays xylophone, vibes, and other crazy synth sounds and samples that can easily help alter the overall personality of any song! No one stays in one spot for very long...

MR: Are there any bands out there that moe. feels most akin with and why?

CG: Hmmm...that's tough. We haven't reinvented the wheel, by any means, but it definitely has a unique, funky-ass Mad Max spinning rim on it! I guess there are touches of Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead, but with King Crimson, The Who, Kiss, and Gram Parsons mixed in. I am fulla s**t. Really, I think we are just trying to condense a lot of influences and forebears--too many to really acknowledge--and have distinctive, unique voices as instrumentalists and vocalists. It's not easy! We are all a bit schizophrenic, so sometimes the result is anarchic, but pleasant.

MR: WIll the LA LAs really ever come back?

CG: They are back, baby!

MR: Chuck, what advice do you have for new artists?

CG: You can do it all yourself, but you have to put in the time, tour a lot and build your fans one at a time. It's hard work, but it will last longer than if you get there through false hype.

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Follow Mike Ragogna on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ragz2008

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/trampled-by-turtles-epk-e_b_1292699.html

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If you are a home owner in the UK and | Commercial Loan

If you are a home owner in the UK and 2012-02-21 at 06:48 pm admin

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Video: What if Romney loses Michigan?

Mobile apps test your Presidents' Day IQ

For parents looking for homework help, or to inspire kids with presidential examples beyond George Washington and Abraham Lincoln this Presidents' Day, you can take your young learner on a fun and educational meet-and-greet with the 44 U.S. presidents using these apps.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46457311#46457311

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