Robert (gurdonark) wrote,
Robert
gurdonark

remixing the meek

I love people who exhibit humility. Perhaps it's that I believed everything I read about the seven virtues. Perhaps I grew up in a small town in which the only mortal sin was being "stuck up". Perhaps it's just one of the many eight letter words that I never have the letters for and thus never score a "bingo" in Scrabble. I don't mean "never". I mean "not ever, never, not at all, the only spaces I can fill read "E" and "A" and "T", for three points".

One might imagine, this love for humble people being firmly in place, that my favorite people of all would be the meek. After all, they have a nice inheritance, and they are soft spoken. Yet I find that I like my meekness in assertive, brash, self-motivated servings. I believe in the true humility that arises when one gives it a darn good try, picks up, dusts off, and tries yet again. I like eye contact, exploration of ideas, and the firm ability to laugh at oneself prior to laughing at another.

Tonight a fellow at my favorite remix site, ccmixter, posted a new remix called "Cirrus Reborn". His piece "Cirrus" got "reborn" because an earlier remix he posted had gotten rather poor reactions.

Some folks would, after getting bad reviews, lament to the Heavens, curse the ways in which Philistines humiliate True Artists, and retreat to whatever in his particular suburb functions as a garret, to wallow in the sheer non-humility of being conscious of oneself being so complex as to be misunderstood by all who matter.

Not this fellow, who goes by the catchy-if-not-heartwarming handle Fireproof Babies (which is a cool handle if it is an Eno reference, and not so cool if it is a Mattel reference).

He posted "Cirrus Reborn". He picked himself up, dusted himself off, and started all over again, with a very nice little remix.

My personal creed is that one shows love for people who show admirable meekness.
In ccmixter terms, one way to show love is to remix someone's song.

I got out Slicer, the freeware sample Slicer, ran the melody through it, then added a Fireproof Babies spoken word track, and ran it through Slicer again. The resulting
remix, cool melody, modest glitchy recording, and general meek oddness and all, is
right here at this little click place. I call it "Cirrus Storms", and like Pinnochio, it's an awful lot like a real song towards the end, if one ignores the crashing waves bit.

I wish I were as meek as I should be, but I have a law degree. But I can support the meek, and remix the meek, and slice their samples, and listen to their songs pop and hum in my softstudio. For now, that will have to do.
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