Raising Musical Awareness - The Dreaming

“The Dreaming was my 'She's gone mad' album” – Kate Bush.

Fanatical screams, fierce grunts, primal chanting, occultist wailing, old-fashioned crooning, voice modification, and the sounds of donkeys and sheep. After multiple listens, it seems like The Dreaming could just as easily have been produced by a beast from the spiral nebula as a young woman from Kent, England.

Photo via rzrxtion at flickr.com

 Kate Bush’s fourth album, The Dreaming, was released in 1982 when Bush was just 24 years old. The album was released more than two years after her previous album, Never For Ever, had entered the charts at no. 1 in 1980.

The Dreaming is aptly titled. Much like a dream, the landscape changes rapidly and without warning. Over the course of the album - and even within individual songs - the tone shifts so abruptly that it feels as if new, subconscious musical tangents are ripping through without Bush’s thought or restraint. No sound ever lingers.

In a way, listening to The Dreaming is similar to reading stream of consciousness writing: it’s wholly inventive, but only partially intelligible. This combination can be both frustrating and rewarding. For example, there are times – particularly upon first listen – where it becomes nearly impossible to stay afloat in the dense, cacophonous sound. The songs are often layered to the point of incoherency.

However, from this wave of oblique audio many great moments emerge, and they drip like melodic ripples down the backbone of the open-minded listener. For example, the distant psychedelic guitar, roaring helicopter, and Bush’s bone-chilling declaration of “I Love Life! I Love Life!” on the track “Pull Out The Pin.” Or her growling assertion – as she plays the part of Houdini’s wife – that his spit is still on her lips as his body hits the water.

These moments showcase Bush’s wild, shrill vocals. Although some may find her voice grating at times, her eccentric style allows her to achieve a level of unfettered expression. You can feel her joy, confusion, or pain in every piercing cry or arsenic-laced roar. On The Dreaming, lyrics take a back seat to the sound. Without actually hearing Bush’s words, you can recognize her emotion, giving the album a style that still sounds exotic today.

Highlights of this otherworldly masterpiece include: “Suspended in Gaffa,” which may be the most accessible song on the album; “Leave it Open,” which closes with a tugboat rush of drowning drums and Bush’s haunting backwards vocals squealing “We let the weirdness in.”; and “Night of the Swallow,” which successfully fuses a haunting ballad with a lively Irish jig.

Listening to the album now, I’m a little unsure how to market it. Usually I’d recommend listening to an album all the way through the first time, but The Dreaming is nearly too much to take in during one straight session.

The conclusion to the album brings back a kind of childhood terror. It makes me compulsively look around the room to ensure that no malevolent spirits have begun dancing behind me. It is reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s “Bike,” which concludes The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Rather than closing with harmony and satisfaction, both albums introduce a new, frightening riff just as the album is fading out. This approach leaves the album with a sense of irresolution and instability. But I guess that’s befitting of the oddity that has come before. Hee-Haw!

On another note, The Dreaming has some of my favourite cover art of all time. Kate Bush looks beautiful.

Listening Recommendations: In short stints while your synapses are firing at a reasonable rate. Or after ingesting Adderall.

Social Media and Social Circles

When discussing social media, I find it's helpful to liken it to a cliquey high school. In this case, we'll use the school from John Hughes' Pretty in Pink. For those who haven't seen it (and you've had almost 25 years) the school is divided by wealth. The upper class and the working class. However, in a shocking and entirely uncliched plot, one girl, Andie - played by Molly Ringwald - manages to break free from the oppressive social circles and find love with, get this, a boy from the other side of the tracks.

Andie is Twitter.

Photo via behindthehype.com

Although I am constantly told that it is young people who are using social media - an umbrella term which covers Twitter and Facebook - I have a hard time finding anyone my age (20) who is using Twitter. I've spoken to roughly a dozen of my high school friends - the majority of which attend the University of Winnipeg or Manitoba now - and none, that's right, none of them use Twitter. It's hard to believe.

I attribute this to the fact that, like Molly Ringwald's character in Pretty in Pink, Twitter just hasn't been accepted yet. Despite having been launched over 4 years ago, Twitter is still novel, foreign, and a little awkward to most people. In short, it's still uncool.

For example, when I first started using Twitter in September I was criticized - I mean genuinely ridiculed - by a few of my old close friends from high school. To them, Twitter was a place where you could find out what Shaggy's favourite flavour of popsicle is or listen to Ashton Kutcher chirp about how awesome hot yoga is. I'll admit, at first I was skeptical as well, but the merits of Twitter have quickly become apparent to me. But I'll leave it to the professionals to sing Twitter's praises.

Looking at Facebook on the other hand, all of the students I spoke to had an account and used it regularly. They were happy to talk about it, treating it more as an inevitability of life than an actual choice. It's assumed. In fact, when three members of my current class admitted to not "being on" Facebook, it was surprising. Facebook is just there. It's moved beyond the Molly Ringwald phase and into the Ferris Bueller.


So what does this mean for PR practitioners? Well, most importantly, it means that you can't assume that you will be able to reach a large youth audience through Twitter. Sure, you will be able to reach some people - Creative Communications students, for example - but many, perhaps the majority, are still found other places, like Facebook.

I think Twitter will eventually go the way of Facebook. But until then, it's still just Molly Ringwald getting called a "piece of low-grade ass" by James Spader. But then again, even he loves her...

The Publishing Problem: "Don't Try"

The question of how to go about publishing a book comes down to one thing – legitimacy. Or at least the perception of it.

Having your work in a tangible form with the stamp of a professional publisher gives the reader – and potential buyer – the impression that your book, at the very least, isn’t apocalyptically awful. Hey, for it to be published someone must have thought it was okay. Even if it was only your aunt Angelica at “We Publish Books Publishing House.”

Furthermore, books released with the backing of a good publisher also receive proper distribution and promotion – essential support for anyone who is serious about making a little coin from their passionate prose. Today's guest speaker at Red River College, Julie Wilson, says as much on her blog.

(abrupt about-face)

But for those who aren’t serious, why go through the trouble? That’s right, in the wise, whiskey-fuelled words of Charles Bukowski, “Don’t Try.” The emotional and psychological repercussions of writing a novel for two years only to have the publisher “put a bullet in it,” as Matt Duggan related, isn’t worth it.

Image via synthesis.net

 So, sing your short stories from the bathroom window, tattoo your poetry to your forehead, recite your historical epic to the animals in a pet store – if you want to be published, just do it. Hell, if you’re feeling particularly wild, even upload it to Amazon.

In short, if you’re in it for the fast cars and class A drugs, find a publisher. If you’re just looking for a pair of lonely eyes to flutter on your words, find a more creative means of publication. And who’s to say Bukowski was right? Guy was a bloody drunk anyways. Albeit a published drunk.

Improv Comedy - 'Did You Just Make That Up?' and Beyond.

I have no acting training, no improv experience, and no familiarity with the concept of an 'improvised radio comedy panel game show' (although I'm not sure that anyone knows exactly what that means). Yet, when friend and colleague Robert Zirk approached me and a few others with the idea for 'Did You Just Make That Up?' - Kickfm's eternally in-production comedy show - I was easily coaxed.

Maybe my judgment was skewed after a night of heavy news release writing, or maybe I was just seduced by the allure of unimaginable radio stardom. In any event, I was genuinely excited to be a part of the program.

Imagine my shock when the first taping - and a handful more - turned out to be tasteless messes of comic putrescence. There was a giant burrito, a hobo clown on a train, and an anthropomorphic baseball bat that had a penchant for little boys. Horrible, frightening material.

Luckily, since those dark days, we have produced sketches that are witty, impressive, and - dare I say - hilarious. However, the humor didn't come easy. After those first few shows I retreated deep into the damp recesses of my home with only a computer screen to light the way. And I watched improv...

Old episodes of 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' became nightly viewing. Excerpts from improv comedy shows on YouTube were like training videos. The videos that I found myself watching the most, however, were from the 'Hello My Name is Show.'

Image via http://ccr.stanford.edu/blog/

 The series was created by cast members of the very popular CollegeHumor website, and is based around improvised interviews between a host and a created character. To date, there have been 11 episodes, with standouts including an incompetent Irish actor and an employee of Satan.



All episodes of the Hello My Name is Show can be found at collegehumor.com/hellomynameis