my first post

thanks for visiting my blog.

this is my first post.

I'm particularly interested in music review blogs, such as bagatellen, and destination out, which features off beat, avant garde, experimental, improv, jazz, and electro acoustic music reviews and often times containing free mp3 downloads of songs by certain artists. These sites also list a humungous link section to various other music review sites, and it would certainly take years to sift through it all and collect all the records mentioned their blogs.

I'm feeling glad because I think this course will push me to investigate these blogs in more detail, because otherwise I end up listening to my mp3 collection because of the accessability I have of downloading free music due to just being a UMass student.

I'd also like to listen to more online radio, that is streamed anywhere in the world. One of the things that I love about the internet is that it is the platform for new technology. Online radio is somewhat under attack now, but it is certainly IMO one of the greatest inventions in the online world. From anywhere in the world with a connection you can sample and listen to whatever radio station you choose to. Some of the programs I like are WFMU and Resonance FM to name some.

News as a developing topic and issue in the avant garde and underground music community is developed mostly through word of mouth, but people also gather on online forums to discuss the latest news about performers that they like, who do not and do not wish to get featured in major online zines. It's a very choice based system and the musicians can be fiercely independent as well as carrying a collective spirit. The whole scene is autonomous because everyone helps each other out, by getting each other gigs, and from the financial support of avid record collectors and music enthusiasts.

Sometimes it can be annoying to hear people talk about musicians that you've never heard of, but once you get into it, it's hard to stop buying CDs, books, and DVDs that these people recommend. For example, I've been introduced to two of what I now consider my favorite movie directors of all time, Bela Tarr, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Tarkovsky's movie Stalker blew me away completely, and it is all because some people I know in this online forum recommended it to me. In fact, I feel like I have a steady group of friends online that I "see" everyday and we are indeed a community of sorts based on the arts I guess you can say. Even though I haven't met any of these people face to face, I feel connected to their personalities and presences even though it's all online.

Here is some news from a avant music news source (http://www.somnius.com/amn/):

Videos and other material from Kill Your Timid Notion 07 are on line

This year's festival, I believe, was different from other years, because of the massive incorporation of video into the audio series which usually prevails and dominates, but this year video was used extensively and exhaustively on purpose as well. I should check this out in more detail soon, AVVA should be amazing.

(also I'd love to learn the technical sides of making a blog too like how to act mp3s and pictures and things like that. I'm afraid I'm not terribly good at HTML)