Soundscape

James Baldwin accomplished things when he wrote “Sonny’s Blues—not only is the story a memoir of the lives of African Americans in Harlem in the 1950’s but also a story about the struggles and decisions that affect family and brotherhood. Harlem, the setting, traps the African Americans who call it home; it traps them in a life of poverty, crime, and anger. Two brothers choose very different paths: the narrator becomes a respectable teacher whose goal is to assimilate into a white society, and…

The 2010 Writers’ Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, presented in the Chicago suburb of Glencoe, arrived on the scene in the immediate afterglow of the critically acclaimed and soldout limited US run of the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of the play starring Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois. The Sydney production, directed by Liv Ullmann, was universally praised, and critics particularly singled out Blanchett’s performance as revelatory and nearly definitive. With Ullmann’s…

“At last I can be free, Yeah, listen, I mean, I really can be me, I’m happy, I’m carefree and I’m gay, I was born this way! I’m happy, I’m carefree and I’m gay, I was born this way!”— Carl Bean In 1978, Carl Bean, a Black gay male singer from Baltimore who was signed to the legendary Motown Records, released not only a triumphant anthem for gay communities across the globe, but a profound declaration through song that was a bold coming out statement, which spread across mainstream radio spaces.…

This expansion of the traditional soundscape, of course, isn’t without its justified criticism. Overdubbing and multi-track recording, by definition, allows artists to potentially polish their studio recordings to a degree of artificial perfection. Many critics agree that overdubbing induces a certain stiffness that isn’t present in live or single session recordings, and this rigidity directly contradicts the tenets of rock and roll, which decree it an organic expression of thought. For all the…

of the game, and to connote different emotions and meanings for thousands of players. The audio in Grand Theft Auto V is very articulate. As you traverse through the game you immediately begin to immerse yourself into a variety of different soundscapes. The sole purpose of which is to immerse yourself into the world of the game and to create connotations that affect…

Answer 1 "This knowledge, king," said Theuth, "will make the Egyptians wiser and provide them with better memory; for it has been found as a drug for memory and wisdom” (Plato 274e). The above mentioned quote, represents the ecstaticism of Theuth, an Egyptian God, on the medium of writing. Thamus, the King of Egypt, however viewed writing as a medium that brings forth a greater deal of forgetfulness, and thus not increasing one’s memory. Furthermore, once one finished reading about vast ideas,…

The book begins with a modernist architect, Le Corbusier, visiting New York City. Le Corbusier marveled both the city and the musical culture of African-Americans. He believed, “jazz is an event representing the forces of today” (p. 3). The forces of today are the industrialization and mass production of American society. He even goes on to state that American society is a “machine for living” (p. 3). Le Corbusier believed jazz reflected and contained chaotic yet continuous rhythmic flow that…

'The idea is to produce things that are as strange and mysterious to you as the first music you ever heard.' Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de La Salle Eno or, as more commonly known to the world, just Brian Eno, can be unbiasedly described as an iconic contemporary British artist. He began his music career with guitarist Anthony Grafton in 1968 in Maxwell Demon, and was influenced by such bands as The Velvet Underground (Independent.co.uk, 1998) his real legacy began in 1971, as a…