music challenge topic September 5, 2007 9:13 PM Subscribe
Can't seem to find this month's music challenge topic. Is there one?
I'm thinking it'd be a heckuva good time to go with "superhero".
However, I don't have access to the bit of the underside of the site where that gets tweaked. Matt?
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:42 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
However, I don't have access to the bit of the underside of the site where that gets tweaked. Matt?
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:42 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
ok, superhero it is. I was still secretly pulling for "Larry Craig's Wide Stance"
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:17 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:17 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
"Superheroe"?
posted by ALongDecember at 10:25 PM on September 5, 2007
posted by ALongDecember at 10:25 PM on September 5, 2007
And hey, some of you folks who never pay us a visit over in MeFi Musictown, get on over to the bridge just as soon as you're able, and check out last month's offerings! More ears wanted at MeFiMu!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:26 PM on September 5, 2007
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:26 PM on September 5, 2007
I feel like Superheroes has already been done definitively.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:16 AM on September 6, 2007
posted by Wolfdog at 6:16 AM on September 6, 2007
I guess this is the best place to ask this question: If the mefi music challenge topic just happens to match a song you've already wrote, is it a faux pas to post it?
posted by tehloki at 11:20 AM on September 6, 2007
posted by tehloki at 11:20 AM on September 6, 2007
(It's 'cause I've got like 400 songs just sitting around with nothin' to do, and one of them is bound to come up sometime.)
posted by tehloki at 11:21 AM on September 6, 2007
posted by tehloki at 11:21 AM on September 6, 2007
The About page linked from the front page of Music addresses that: it's certainly not verboten, even if new recordings are pretty awesome and the main goal. So go for, it, man.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:35 AM on September 6, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:35 AM on September 6, 2007
Hmmm. Tell you what, rest-of-the-guys-who-post-at-Music, I'm having a hard time coming up with on-command stuff for the challenges (and perhaps others are going thru the same thing, since each challenge has fewer participants), so, why don't we do what musicians always do in real life? Let's talk about our ideas here (or perhaps in a permanent thread linked somewhere from Music) so that we can steal from each other -cough, cough, i meant, "inspire each other"- and hopefully that "interactivity" will make more people participate. How does that sound?
posted by micayetoca at 2:26 PM on September 6, 2007
posted by micayetoca at 2:26 PM on September 6, 2007
micayetoca: YES!
cortex: Isn't there a sideblog thingy for MeFiMu coming up sometime in the future?
music challenge: Hell yea! Bring on your "Superheros" suckuzzzz!!!! (kidding)
posted by snsranch at 4:39 PM on September 6, 2007
cortex: Isn't there a sideblog thingy for MeFiMu coming up sometime in the future?
music challenge: Hell yea! Bring on your "Superheros" suckuzzzz!!!! (kidding)
posted by snsranch at 4:39 PM on September 6, 2007
I hope there's a sideblog thingy coming up, but we don't have any specific plans in motion right now; a lot of other little things going on in the background, etc. I'd love to get to dedicated-music-thread state somehow, though.
For what it's worth, I've got two stanzas of a song about Batman as of this afternoon. Whee!
Other ideas that were kicking around when I thought of this:
- I've always liked "Superman Song" by Crash Test Dummies—the sort of bleak, Puritan portrait of a lonely man of principle, saving the world every day because it's the only thing he knows how to do and he knows it's Right. Faboo. A little undramatic vignette like that of this or that comic figure could be neat.
- An entire song about how annoyed I was at the end of Unbreakable.
- I've had a loose idea for a story kicking around in my head forever, about people with genuine superpowers that were so subtle and useless that nobody, including the folks themselves, had any idea the powers existed. The star of this story was Guy Who Always Closes Doors Just Perfectly. Not really intended as comedy, even—not a Flaming Carrot riff or anything—but just, literally, a straightfaced story about those folks.
- An exhaustive, We Didn't Start The Fire list of heroes would be something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:02 PM on September 6, 2007
For what it's worth, I've got two stanzas of a song about Batman as of this afternoon. Whee!
Other ideas that were kicking around when I thought of this:
- I've always liked "Superman Song" by Crash Test Dummies—the sort of bleak, Puritan portrait of a lonely man of principle, saving the world every day because it's the only thing he knows how to do and he knows it's Right. Faboo. A little undramatic vignette like that of this or that comic figure could be neat.
- An entire song about how annoyed I was at the end of Unbreakable.
- I've had a loose idea for a story kicking around in my head forever, about people with genuine superpowers that were so subtle and useless that nobody, including the folks themselves, had any idea the powers existed. The star of this story was Guy Who Always Closes Doors Just Perfectly. Not really intended as comedy, even—not a Flaming Carrot riff or anything—but just, literally, a straightfaced story about those folks.
- An exhaustive, We Didn't Start The Fire list of heroes would be something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:02 PM on September 6, 2007
Guy Who Always Closes Doors Just Perfectly.
Hahahaha! That's pretty funny, cortex! I'm reminded of a wonderful old Saturday Night Live sketch that starred Christopher Walken: he's a guy working in an office, talking to his co-workers. He's able to accurately predict the future, but only really mundane stuff from the very near future. All his information, whatever he has to tell anyone about their future, is basically useless. And of course Walken plays it brilliantly.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:39 PM on September 6, 2007
Hahahaha! That's pretty funny, cortex! I'm reminded of a wonderful old Saturday Night Live sketch that starred Christopher Walken: he's a guy working in an office, talking to his co-workers. He's able to accurately predict the future, but only really mundane stuff from the very near future. All his information, whatever he has to tell anyone about their future, is basically useless. And of course Walken plays it brilliantly.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:39 PM on September 6, 2007
And of course Walken plays it brilliantly.
Had to see this, found a snippet at about 4:02 into this clip.
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:57 AM on September 7, 2007
Had to see this, found a snippet at about 4:02 into this clip.
posted by TwoWordReview at 5:57 AM on September 7, 2007
Yeah, TwoWord, that's the one! And a bunch of other funny stuff on that clip too, natch! Thanks for digging that up.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:23 AM on September 7, 2007
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:23 AM on September 7, 2007
The first thing that crossed my mind when I read the challeng was about superheroes, was a speech by Hugo Chavez (the president of Venezuela) where he was announcing the launch of Telesur, a TV initiative intended as a countermeasure against the overwhelming cultural influence from the north (a mouthful, innit?)
In his speech he was talking about how we were raised knowing a lot of little historic facts about the US, but we never hear anything about Latin American history. About how we all knew American cartoons, but not the work of Latin American artists. In the climax of the speech he was saying that, now, with Telesur, "if they send us Superman, we will send them Tupac Atari!!!...if they send us Batman, we will send them Tecun Uman!!!..." and it went on, listing a bunch of American superheroes vs. Latin American indigenous historical figures.
It's a great snippet, and I was thinking perhaps of sampling it and put an electronic beat and some cuatro behind it, but now the idea lost its novelty and it seems like a cheap shot. As I said, I'm having a hard time coming up with these things.
posted by micayetoca at 7:18 AM on September 7, 2007
In his speech he was talking about how we were raised knowing a lot of little historic facts about the US, but we never hear anything about Latin American history. About how we all knew American cartoons, but not the work of Latin American artists. In the climax of the speech he was saying that, now, with Telesur, "if they send us Superman, we will send them Tupac Atari!!!...if they send us Batman, we will send them Tecun Uman!!!..." and it went on, listing a bunch of American superheroes vs. Latin American indigenous historical figures.
It's a great snippet, and I was thinking perhaps of sampling it and put an electronic beat and some cuatro behind it, but now the idea lost its novelty and it seems like a cheap shot. As I said, I'm having a hard time coming up with these things.
posted by micayetoca at 7:18 AM on September 7, 2007
I'm having a hard time coming up with these things.
Well, the whole putting-sampled-speeches-over-beats thing is, in my humble opinion, kind of tired and overdone, so I'd agree that might not be the best thing to do. But as I was reading your comment, mica, I was thinking how great it is that MeFiMu has this guy down in Venezuela, with access to a whole other set of cultural signifiers and experiences. Your take on the "superhero" theme, that is, what you described in your comment, well, that's something that probably no other MeFier would come up with. Now, whether you go with something concerning the Chavez speech or not, I do think that you can bring something to MeFiMu, and these monthly challenges, that is pretty unique. Informed by your cultural perspective as a Latin American, living in Venezuela.
And you probably don't need me to say this, but posting songs that you've written in Spanish is the thing to do, if you're more comfortable writing lyrics in Spanish. I have a feeling you could come up with a fine song about this very Chavez superhero thing you've mentioned. And for example, I don't think you have to come up with some kind of opus, y'know? Maybe just a few lines, supported by some of that trademarked micayetoca homespun, South American vibe. Anyway, like the kids used to say, just go for it!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:21 AM on September 7, 2007
Well, the whole putting-sampled-speeches-over-beats thing is, in my humble opinion, kind of tired and overdone, so I'd agree that might not be the best thing to do. But as I was reading your comment, mica, I was thinking how great it is that MeFiMu has this guy down in Venezuela, with access to a whole other set of cultural signifiers and experiences. Your take on the "superhero" theme, that is, what you described in your comment, well, that's something that probably no other MeFier would come up with. Now, whether you go with something concerning the Chavez speech or not, I do think that you can bring something to MeFiMu, and these monthly challenges, that is pretty unique. Informed by your cultural perspective as a Latin American, living in Venezuela.
And you probably don't need me to say this, but posting songs that you've written in Spanish is the thing to do, if you're more comfortable writing lyrics in Spanish. I have a feeling you could come up with a fine song about this very Chavez superhero thing you've mentioned. And for example, I don't think you have to come up with some kind of opus, y'know? Maybe just a few lines, supported by some of that trademarked micayetoca homespun, South American vibe. Anyway, like the kids used to say, just go for it!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:21 AM on September 7, 2007
micayetoca, as a neighbor to the North, I would be fascinated to hear a song about ANY of those characters you mentioned. Just as long as it's not the guy in the bee costume!
posted by snsranch at 4:22 PM on September 7, 2007
posted by snsranch at 4:22 PM on September 7, 2007
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posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:24 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]