Complex Numbers

Moonlighting

Today's entry is for:

Journalistic Intentions  (18+) This is for the journal keeping types that come to PLAY! New round starts July 1! #2213121 by Turkey DrumStik

What is a "reactive visualizer?"

That was my first question, as I haven't encountered these videos before. The YouTube description is mute (see what I did there) on the subject, and I long ago trained myself to never look at YouTube comments.

And even after Googling, I'm still not sure. It looks like a "Piano Hero" attachment that drops the notes that you're supposed to strike?

But that was after watching the video. During, I was too mesmerized to care much about the technology.

Speaking of technology...

It turns out I have a fondness for things that take things from the past and give them a new twist.

It could be argued that just putting Beethoven on the internet does that, or giving out mp3s of singing monks, or whatever. But the medium itself is irrelevant; if it's just some dude sitting at a piano and playing a sonata, well, that's been the same for a few centuries now.

I once saw a video - I'd link it, but I don't want to overdo the embeds, so you'll just have to look for it if you're interested - of a rendition of (speaking of ol' Ludwig) Ode to Joy. Now, of all of the overdone Beethoven pieces, that's the overdonest, but it's arguably the second most recognizable tune from that composer (the first being, of course, the triumphant FUCK YOU of the opening notes of the Fifth). But this one had a twist. No, a few twists. First of all, it was an all-Japanese orchestra. If memory serves, it was also all-female, but don't make me swear to that because I can't be arsed to find it again now. Second, it was an all-theremin   orchestra. And finally, they played a version that was in Ragtime style.

Bottom line: a Japanese orchestra playing the music of an Austrian composer using 20th-century Russian technology, in an American style.

Or - and this one's my favorite - a mashup of electric guitar covers of one of the earliest known pieces of sheet music, Pachelbel's Canon in D.

To stray from music and into theater, I recently saw a video of a stage production of Much Ado About Nothing with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. That's right - The DoctorDonna, on stage, doing Shakespeare. It's glorious. Go find it.

Point being that modernization isn't a bad thing -- provided you know where the shit comes from in the first place.

As far as I'm concerned, this is why the internet is great. Well, that and cat videos. And maybe porn. No... cat videos.

Anyway, back to the video up there at the top.

I'd also never heard of Rousseau. Don't look at me like that; I appreciate classical music, but my heart belongs to rock. Some say it's made of rock, and who am I to argue? So I looked him up, briefly, but all I saw is a bunch of other reactive visualizer videos. Which is fine; I'll probably see more of them at some point, especially now that YouTube's algorithm has surely decided to inundate me with suggestions for other Rousseau videos. That's fine. It's something different from my usual suggestions of math / science explanations, rock and roll, cat antics, and My Little P- I mean, er, cooking vids.

And now I see that one of my suggestions is a video entitled "Does Quantum Immortality Save Schrödinger's Cat?" I haven't clicked on it yet, but I'm hoping it has a cookin' soundtrack.