Recording of BT's 'Animals'

conscious animals

Brian Transeau or BT as he is known in keyboard and electronica > trance music circles is, in my estimation, what happens when you give someone as smart as Einstein the gift of music and the technology of today. he thinks not just in terms of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64, and 1/128th notes, but also 1/256, 1/512 and 1/1024th notes - both duple's and triplets. he time-corrects raindrops - there are no categories for this guy. his song "Somnambulist = SimplyBeingLoved" and video (that he also edited) (all on a Mac) is posted in my hall of fame. it is also posted in the guinness book of world records for "most vocal edits" @ 6,178. you can watch the video 50 times and find new stuff -- e.g. temporal anomalies masterfully linked to the music.

previous BT albums really didn't have a spiritual dimension to them. But with this new disk (Emotional Technlogy) -- i really felt that he moved into a whole new world. a world where he is confronted by and experiencing the numinous. In the song "Animals" for instance, BT is faced with the confounding perspetive that we are indeed animals, yet conscious. the impact of this could be lost on those who would "turn off" at the first hint of equating humanity with animals.

but give BT some grace here. allow an artist a different perspetive and/or allow him to be in a different place on his journey. our flesh is indeed animal -- we can eat each other. but what is not missed on BT is that we are also conscious -- the wonder of which is on the order of the incarnation. this is the rocks crying out.

ninety-plus percent of the song's meaning is in the music, but here's BT's poetry:

My secret wish ...in this sacred place
Is to relinquish needs
The great constant is perpetual change
So when we leave, as we know we will
Some of us remains, consecrated and unchanged

Circles in stars they bind us now - we're pretty animals
Colors around are bled of love - we're hopeful animals
Kiss me now so we can feel alive - we're conscious animals
Circles in stars they bind us now - we're sacred animals

From blood we came ...to ash we return again
These carbon hearts, and terrestrial hopes
From our first goodbye ...to the last hello
Pray we carve our paths ...from God's sacrosanct

Circles in stars they bind us now - we're pretty animals
Colors around are bled of love - we're hopeful animals
Kiss me now so we can feel alive - we're conscious animals
Circles in stars they bind us now - we're sacred animals

The love we crave
that binds
bends
but never change
feeds faith in faith
that I search for in everything

Circles in stars they bind us now - we're pretty animals
Colors around are bled of love - we're hopeful animals
Kiss me now so we can feel alive - we're conscious animals
Circles in stars they bind us now - we're sacred animals

The love we crave
that binds
bends
but never change
feeds faith in faith
that I search for in everything

Stars they bind us now
Around are bled of love - we're conscious animals
Kiss me now so we can feel alive - we're conscious animals
Circles in stars they bind us now - we're sacred animals
Circles in stars they bind us now - we're pretty animals
Colors around are bled of love - we're hopeful animals

Stars they bind us now - we're sacred animals

CoeXisT

i'm a staunch calvinist

what do we see?

what do we choose to see, when we look at people, a culture, a religion, a belief...

do we choose to see the bridge -- where we share common ground?
or do we choose to see the differences -- where there is no bridge?

which is more important? and which is more important to you?
the commonalties? or the differences? and why?

a thought experiment:

if we were to encounter a sentient alien race -- would we recognize their Gospel, being as it were in their species terms, as our own? When translated -- would we allow those everlasting truths in their holy books to illumine our scripture?

or don't we think they could have our Gospel -- THEY are different -- THEY are not spiritual. THEY choose the darkness.

... their truth smells different so it's not the same as ours.

even though romans 1:20 would suggest otherwise… do we think we have a monopoly on the greatest of truths??

can we afford to be exclusivist? do we really believe the sun rotates around the earth??

i'm not saying that Jesus is not the way, he clearly is.
i just can't believe God statistically favors white people from the west.

would we welcome abraham into the fold? ... knowing just what he knew then? and what of those who still know just what he knew? i know we have it figured out -- but what of abraham?

pete


for the curious -- this is interesting.

the BBC, they get it

ok -- i've had that plug for "The BBC" over there on the right for a while now. but what do i mean by that? i mean this;

"Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, told a conference the broadcaster's prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster to a facilitator of news.

"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."

Sambrook likened the increasing use of user-generated news material to a sports game in which the crowd was not only invading the field but also seeking to participate in the game, fundamentally changing the sport."

Now when is the Church going to start gettin' it?

things i didn't know

ok -- so the whole "which day does Ramadan start on?" thing was driving me crazy -- we have the earth's position pretty much figured out, in fact -- every year we need to decide if the earth slowed down enough to merit a leap-second due to all the sloshing around of oceans and tectonic plates, etc. so why can't we figure out which DAY Ramadan starts on?

The BBC reports: "The new Moon occurs after sunset within three days of the new lunar month - but the timing depends on the relative positions of the Sun, the Moon and the observer.

Models used to predict its location are accepted as accurate - but it's the visibility that is in doubt. In the Tropics, the Moon appears higher than locations further north. The further north the observer, the more likely it is to be low in the sky - and therefore obscured by the twilight.

"Over its 19-year cycle, the Moon ranges from -28.5 degrees to +28.5 degrees in its angle to the Earth's equator," says Dr Bell.

"This has a direct bearing on how easy it is to spot the new crescent Moon. Couple this with the relative positions of the Sun and the Moon, and it can be shown that tropical latitudes, such as those in Saudi Arabia or South East Asia, will see the new crescent Moon earlier than elsewhere."

wow. i learned something. i love it when reality is just a leetle bit more complex than our models.

a message to the Almighty

one of the best daily show moments ever... here