Animal Hospital–Live on WNUR; Dosh–Live on WNUR

Animal Hospital–just heard Animal Hospital – “Live on WNUR 5/28/09”. OMG it’s like the best thing I’ve heard in years. Parts were like, as good as Sonic Youth Daydream Nation. WOW!!! Apparently it’s one guy, Kevin Micka…playing everything by himself with looping, including drums, guitar, keyboards, effects. Apparently he’s playing some shows again soon, I’m definitely going to see a show… Here’s his myspace: Animal Hospital

WHOA, Dosh – “Live on WNUR 5/28/08” is awesome also. Dosh is from Anticon–super good!!!! Here’s his Myspace. Jeepers!!! It’s also like all looped with electronics and live drums, great saxophone, Fender Rhodes, etc…wow!!!

El Coco–Cocomotion

Disco for world peace…sounds like the awesome soundtrack to this one 1970s Galaxy Express 999 movie I have…also see the related 70s disco group Le Pamplemousse. It’s weird how the music industry works, this stuff is easily as good as Chic, Taste of Honey, etc, it’s weird how there’s always a media monopoly of just like two or three or ten bands in any one genre that you ever hear on the radio…payola probably.

El Coco-Cocomotion

Check out this 70s disco playlist on YouTube

Le Pamplemousse–Hot Disco Soul–Get Your Boom Boom Around the Room Room and Gimme What You Got

I can never believe how much good stuff keeps emerging from the 1970s…This kind of stuff just reminds me how much postpunk, indie, new wave and electronic music like the Talking Heads and Daft Punk and Duran Duran and Lindstrom and Prins Thomas comes out of early disco/funk, lots of hip hop too for that matter…

Le Pamplemousse–Get Your Boom Boom Around the Room Room

Le Pamplemousse–Gimme What You Got

Le Pamplemousse–Le Spank

Tarika Blue–Jimi–Awesome 70s Jazz Fusion/Prog; Deodato–Speak Low

Tarika Blue–Jimi

Awesome! This great jazz fusion band is from New York, the guitarist is Japanese, Ryo Kawasaki–what solos! Apparently the Tarika Blue song ““Dreamflower”, which has been sampled by Erykah Badu for a neo-soul, R&B hit (Grammy nominated), was also sampled by a drum ‘n’ bass group in the UK, the Underwolves,” according to the record label Downtown Sound.

Here’s some more awesome 70s jazz/jazz fusion:

Deodato-Speak Low
Deodato produced like all of the great 70s Kool and the Gang records as far as I know…

Sebastien Tellier–Broadway

Sebastien Tellier–Broadway
I hope he makes another album, this time with the guy from Daft Punk like on Sexuality and Tony Allen (Fela Kuti’s drummer) on drums like on Politics…

Permutations, Combinations, Ordered and Unordered Selections without Repetition, and Binomial Numbers Explained Graphically

Click on the image for the full-size, legible version of the diagram…

Internal tag: math

Procul Harum–Simple Sister

One of the best 70s funky classic rock songs–
Simple Sister–Procul Harum.

The Cure’s Fascination Street is Inspired By Kool and the Gang’s Fresh; Radiohead’s The National Anthem Inspired By the Cure’s Fascination Street

**UPDATE** See the video which demonstrates how The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh” in this post: The Cure’s “Fascination Street” is Based on Kool & The Gang’s “Fresh,” and The Dazz Band’s “Let it Whip” is Based on The Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” (See the videos!)

Kool and the Gang–Fresh. Check out the bassline, some of the changes, the guitar, etc. Then check out The Cure’s Fascination Street…definitely inspired by Kool and the Gang’s Fresh!

Cure–Fascination Street

For those of you doubting this, here’s a less controversial one: did you ever listen to The Cure’s Hot Hot Hot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJovcqtdh8) and then Chic’s Good Times (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g6bUe5MDRo)? The bassline, guitars, and drums are very similar; i.e. the songs are very similar. The Cure liked to make their own version of disco/funk songs. there’s nothing wrong with that, musicians like to make their own versions of hit songs, it’s just what they do.

I always thought the bassline of Radiohead’s The National Anthem was kind of in a similar vein to the Fascination Street bassline, but just in terms of mechanics, not the melodic component. Kind of sounds like Can too.

Here’s a cover of Joy Division’s Ceremony by Radiohead..

Radiohead-Ceremony

Here’s an original Radiohead song I think is really good

Radiohead–Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

Radiohead’s Scotch Mist live DVD is amazing!

Stand Up Paddle Surfing/SUPing

Wow, I was by this lake and saw this guy, way out in the middle of the lake, and it looked like he was walking on water! He had a paddle, and was paddling, standing up…what he was standing on wasn’t even a kayak–it was a surfboard, I guess it’s called stand up paddle surfing/SUPing!

As a big fan of kayaking, I have to try this next!

Photo by Bryan Thatcher , http://standuppaddlesurf.blogspot.com, and Visit Rio De Janiero

Graph of Division, Plus Quotative and Partative Division: Which is Easier for Kids to Understand?

Here’s a graph displaying some of the behavior of division, how division by absolute value of x > 1 results in absolute value y < numerator, and division by absolute value of 0 < x < 1 results in absolute value y > numerator…

The corresponding graph for multiplication is much simpler…

By the way, I’m a big fan of “quotative division.” As a kid I never thought about it, but there are two ways you can think of division, partative (or “sharing“) and quotative. Say you have 30/2 oranges. Partative would be, say you have two people, how would you split 30 oranges between two people; or if you split 30 oranges into two rows, how many would be in each row? Quotative would be, how many groups of 2 oranges could you split 30 oranges into; if each row had 2 oranges, how many rows would make up a length of 30 oranges?

I like quotative, because I think it’s easier for people to conceptualize division by decimals. If you have 30/.5, partative would be: how would you split up 30 oranges among .5 people; how many oranges would fit in .5 rows? Quotative on the other hand would be, how many rows of .5 oranges would you need to end up with 30 oranges? I think that’s much easier for kids to understand. Quotative is all about splitting the numerator into groups the size of the denominator, which is a bit easier to conceptualize sometimes I think than partative division.

It’s kind of similar with multiplication. 30 * .5 could be make 30 rows with .5 units in each row, or make .5 rows with 30 units in each row. I think the first example 30 rows with .5 units each is easier to conceptualize than .5 rows of 30 units, if you’re a kid, I would think.

Of course, having a good foundation in understanding the what and why of multiplication and division will help kids better understand later topics such as ratios and percentages, and even later topics such as sample spaces in probability and statistics.

From Wikipedia:
“Conceptually, division describes two distinct but related settings. Partitioning involves taking a set of size a and forming b groups that are equal in size. The size of each group formed, c, is the quotient of a and b. Quotative division involves taking a set of size a and forming groups of size b. The number of groups of this size that can be formed, c, is the quotient of a and b[1].”

Here’s an image of visualizing multiplication as branching, and as forming rows and columns. Such branching visualization is useful for understanding permutations and combinations in probability and discrete mathematics, such as when you learn about factorials and the binomial theorem.

internal tag: math