Not a neighborhood skirmish caused by someone doing this on the block without warning anyone, no, real threats of a shooting war if South Korea lights up an observation post on the border with North Korea.
The North claims the lights, visible from a large North Korean city, would constitute a violation of an agreement against ‘cross border propaganda’ and they would take measures in reaction.
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Established: 21 November 2004
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8 comments
In the seasonal light show, the sweeping-beam effect must have been implemented by a percussionist, because the beam sweep speeds up slightly w.r.t. the rest of the music. I’ve never known a (pop) drummer yet who didn’t accelerate.
Q: How do you know the percussion section is at your door?
A: They rush it.
Keeping time isn’t as easy as people think. Normally it works better if they are also the lead singer, because they are keeping time with themselves.
Bryan, I’ve known exactly two professional singers who were, when called upon, good timekeepers. In fact, in renaissance dance music, we would frequently hand them tambourines to tap, so they could keep US in time.
Actually, and not intuitively, a strict percussion helps in part by allowing the high-pitched instrument players to play deliberately ever so slightly OFF the beat.
I don’t know if you’ve ever worked with music studio s/w (I haven’t done much myself), but one feature that always fascinated me in preparing MIDI tracks was the ability to add/subtract a tiny and random Δt so that notes MISSED the beat (or subdivision of the beat) ever so slightly. The effect is so tiny you don’t hear it consciously, but it really enhances the sense of an ensemble of human performers.
Hmm… my first attempt to post failed, and the response suggested that either cookies or JavaScript were turned off… when in fact both were enabled. Hardly catastrophic, but today I’m a bit tired of tech peculiarities!
As someone who can’t carry a tune in a bucket, my experience has been with the electronics, as a DJ and working with a band. There are a lot of effects that became more available as time went on, even with the analog equipment, so I assume that digital would make it even easier to obtain what you want.
It may be that singers are more focused because their instrument is ‘built-in’, and intuitive in the best. My observation was based on the groups I once listened to almost constantly, and the fact that I once considered playing the drums. Usually drummers lose it when they anticipate a coming ‘flourish’ and change position slightly.
I can carry a tune in a bucket but sound like I’m gargling while doing so, so… oh well. I’ve gotten a bit better at keeping time recently, mostly due to going electric and doing a lot of note-bending with lots of reverb and a bit of tremolo. If you don’t get the timing right for the amount of reverb you’ve dialed in, you start crashing your notes into your reverb and it sounds like cr*p.
Regarding the North Koreans, electricity is strictly rationed there and you would never see lights for long after dark, so yeah, lighting up your border posts garishly and flaunting that you have power to waste on silliness might count as propaganda, the North Koreans have a bit of a point there. More on the top of their head than anything else, but still, a point :).
Oh wait, talking about wars on Christmas, did you know that many of our favorite Christmas songs are actually part of a Jewish war on Christmas? OY!
– Badtux the Easily Amused Penguin
Except, there is no shortage of electricity, the North Koreans are just hard working and don’t waste the wealth of the people with frivolities, like reading or cooking dinner … 😉
Just more ‘commercialization’ of a holiday, and a dose of psy-ops.