Author: Charles Céleste Hutchins

My politics and my music have strongly informed and influenced each other during my foray into Text Sound. I’ve found the ability to work with words directly to be freeing. However, it is also limiting. The words I use come from Americans, discussing American politics. The US political process is important to the world at large, due to our economic heft and tendency towards warfare. However, there is a danger of arrogance and over-estimating the cultural capital this might carry abroad. This is a concern as I go abroad next year.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels end The Communist Manifesto with a call for workers of the world to unite. (Marx) International solidarity remains a valuable goal for progressives. However, by using the words of the American political milieu, I’ve made my music inaccessible to non-English speakers. Information accessibility requires multilingualism or non-word sources. I believe that Esperanto is a key to solving these problems, however, currently more people speak English and politicians seldom deliver speeches in Esperanto, thus reducing the amount of source material available.
In order to be a more internationally oriented musician, I can find non-verbal ways to articulate progressive ideals or I can make my works multi-lingual, perhaps mixing together politicians of similar stripes from many countries. It is also possible to create different languaged versions of an idea or to use subtitles. These multi-lingual approaches seem especially suited to installation environments where perhaps the friendly experiencers could choose the language with which they would engage the piece. Installations may also provide a way to model a political idea or a human interaction in an experiential and non-verbal manner.
I feel that there is an inherently political aspect to just intoned pieces, especially ones with low tuning limits. Giving people a space to calm down is restorative and counters whatever fear their governments may be sowing. In some sense, all music is political, as Susan McClary makes clear in her book Feminine Endings by analyzing indicators gender and alien otherness within “Absolute Music.” (McClary) Defining a term too broadly, however, takes away its meaning. I look forward to negotiating a non-English-specific understanding to political music during my coming time abroad.

Your thesis isn’t done until you quote Karl Marx.

Update

Please leave feedback if you’ve got it
Tags: Celesteh, Thesis

While I was working on my political works, I became concerned that my music was too negative. I was pointing out error, but I was not offering counter-proposals. I used pitch, especially just intoned pieces, to give friendly experiencers breaks between Text Sound pieces. Proponents of just music note the lack of meditative music in western culture. They blame this on the tuning system. Kyle Gann writes, “Most cultures use music for meditation, and ours may be the only culture that doesn’t. With our tuning, we can’t.” (Gann) I hoped the meditative qualities of my tuning pieces would help serve as an antidote to any angst incurred by listening to political Text Sound. During my concert, I routed all of my just pieces through the architectural speakers, to give them greater authority than voices coming through the smaller speakers on stage.
Many of my tuning pieces use a set of algorithms taught to me by Ellen Fullman, who I studied with during breaks. These are expressed most easily mathematically. Just tuning uses whole number ratios. The fractions values are between 1 – 2. To keep fractions in this range, they can either be multiplied by 2 or divided by 2. Remember that a doubling of halving of a frequency changes the octave, but not the note. 220 and 440 are both A.
If we call the numerator x and the denominator y, both those numbers may be 2 or an odd number greater than 2. Just tuning systems are typically described by the largest odd number that the use. My tunings are usually 21 limit tuning, so in my pieces x and y can be 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, . . . 21. Tunings that are next to each other in a tuning table from a chord. A chord may be otonal or utonal. In an otonal chord, all the ratios have the same denominator, however, the numerators are adjacent values of x. For example: 3/2, 5/,4, 7/4. In a utonal chord, all the ratios have the same numerator, but the denominator changes. For example: 11/12, 11/10, 11/7. When a proposed chord involves a number greater than the limit, the chord wraps around back to 2. For example: 19/16, 21/16, 2/2 is a valid otonal chord.
21 is an unusually high number to use as a limit. Often tunings have a 5 or a 7 limit. The high limit allows combinations with large relatively prime numbers that have a greater amount of beating. That is, it sounds less in tune. This makes my just pieces microtonal and gives them a certain harmonic logic without necessarily making them overly relaxing.

I just want to be doooone
I think I need a conclusion. I’m quoting Marx. This is not a good sign.
Tags: Celesteh, Thesis

Worse, I gave him money.

We hoped to never write these words: John Kerry and Hillary Clinton are cosponsoring a bill with Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum. Its name is deceptively harmless–The Workplace Religious Freedom Act. But the practical effect could be an enormous boost for an emboldened religious right.
. . .
As a New York Times editorial points out, pharmacists can “berate, belittle or lecture their customers,” refuse to guide them to alternative supplies of medicine and pressure other pharmacies to do the same when large megastores like Wal-Mart already refuse to stock the morning-after pill. . . . “Employers would have serious difficulty resolving instances where an employee posts a sign reading ‘God hates fags’ in his office or cubicle; where workers proselytize on the ‘sins of the homosexual lifestyle’ over lunch,” the Human Rights Campaign wrote in a letter to members of Congress.

read the article
I’m going to France next year. France is secular. Have fun in Jesusland without me.
Tag: Celesteh

I posted very early this morning that Jesus said mean, fucked up things. Some of you are offended, I’m sure. Heck, I’m offended. How could I say such a thing? Well, I was reading the Westboro Baptists Church FAQ which posts much theology which is at least as logically consistent as Catholic theology and in some ways more consistent. I mean, isn’t God loving everybody sort of inconsistent with the idea of hell? I love you so much I’m going to torture you for all eternity? They’ve got it all figured out at Westboro.

If you want to cite that FAQ in a research paper, your bibliography would look like:

“Westboro Baptist Church FAQ” God Hates Fags Assessed April 23, 2005. <http://www.godhatesfags.com/main/faq.html>

I’ve been thinking more about the apocalypse. Apparently, sometime around the time all the fundies get beamed into outer space, there exists years of peace under a one world government. The economy is controlled and cushioned from ups and downs. All government is secular. Ummmmm . . . so in the coming times, we have no fundies, a secular government, a universal brotherhood of man/ universal sisterhood of women, economic prosperity and a secular government. . . . and this is bad.
One the one hand, you have really easy to understand, really clear principles expressed in a straightforward way by the foremost authority on the subject: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” On the other hand you have a confusing, coded account of persecution, which is difficult to decipher and written down by lesser authorities: Book of Revelations. And which do we go with now?
One interpretation is that Jesus was actually sent by Satan! And that’s why Christianity is so screwed up, because we were fooled by a false prophet. This is not an avenue of thought I want to pursue. Besides, I can’t imagine Satan blessing peacemakers.
The Catholic hierarchy used to try to keep bibles out of the hands of the unwashed masses. They believed that it was necessary to be in a state of grace and to have an education to understand what the bible is trying to say. Not everybody could just pick it up and understand it. You needed some context and some theology and some knowledge of the historical context in which it was recorded. Popularly, this prohibition is now seen as a terrible tyranny. But, you know, there’s something to it. So, another interpretation is that Satan is misleading people by making them concentrate on, and misunderstand, a part of the bible that is weird, instead of going for the very clear, straightforward pronouncements.
Haliburton might be the Harlot of Babylon, but I can’t see Bush as the antichrist, because I can’t see him managing to bring about peace or a stable economy. (I know stable doesn’t always mean good, but I think that gross inequality is neither stable, nor peaceful, so I’m going to rule it out.) In the future, we’ve got a secular, peaceful, stable government coming. Sign me up. I really can’t see that as bad. Also, no fundamentalists. The apocalypse will be a coming golden age. Where do I get my mark of the beast?
I’m going to hell
No, seriously, I’m so confused by this type of religion. I see it as intrinsically disordered. fundamentalists are objectively disordered. But with help, they can change. It’s best to avoid support group sort of situations because they might be overcome with temptation and fall back into fundamentalism. they should be kept separated and avoid contact with each other as much as possible.
I can’t stop being sarcastic for one minute. I’ve done too much paper writing.

Bibliography for this post

DeMarinis, Paul, “Cincinnati.” Music as a Second Language, Lovely Music, Ltd. CD 3011, 1991
“Laughter Yoga a Break Through in Stress Management,” Laughter Yoga: Laughter Club International / Dr. Katari’s School of Laughter Yoga Assessed April 23, 2005. <http://www.laughteryoga.org/>
91Angels, Online Posting. No longer extant. <http://www.livejournal.com/users/celestehblog/66886.html?thread=15686#t15686>
O’Reilly, Bill. The Radio Factor with Bill O’Reilly, Westwood One, April 13, 2005. “O’Reilly again warns that same-sex marriage could lead to calls for nuptials with goats” Ed. Marcia Kuntz. April 15, 2005. Media Matters for America. Assessed April 23, 2005. <http://mediamatters.org/items/200504150005>
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, dir. and prod. Robert Greenwald, Carolina Productions. 2004. Transcript Assessed April 22, 2005.
<http://www.outfoxed.org/docs/outfoxed_transcript.pdf>
“Rush Limbaugh.” April 22, 2005. Wikipedia. Assessed April 22, 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh>
Stevens, Dana. “surfergirl: TV and Popular Culture” Slate Jan. 27, 2005. (Interview with Jeanne Hopkins half way down the page) Assessed April 23, 2005. >http://slate.msn.com/id/2112706/<
“Theory Behind BrainWave Generator.” Brain Wave Generator. October 3, 2004. Noromaa Solutions Oy. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://www.bwgen.com/theory.htm>
Tag: Celesteh

St. Malachy, hundreds of years ago had some prophesies about all the popes. He gave them all nicknames. And then after they ran, out, why, that would be the end of everything. We’re on the last one right now.

Gloria olivæ
The Benedictine order traditionally said this Pope would come from their order, since a branch of the Benedictine order is called the Olivetans. St Benedict is said to have prophesied that before the end of the world, a member of his order would be Pope and would triumphantly lead the Church in its fight against evil. While the Holy Father chose the name “Benedict”, this does not seem enough to fulfil the prophecy. Nor is it clear how Benedict XVI (a Bavarian) is “Glory of the Olives”. Since he is said to have remarked in the Conclave after saying he would take the name Benedict that it was partly to honour Benedict XV, a pope of peace and reconciliation, perhaps Benedict XVI will be a peacemaker in the Church or in the World, and thus carry the olive branch.

In like 1998, one person posted a long long long speculation of what this running out of popes might mean. He gives a bunch of scenarios. My favorite:

A possible scenario, but the most distasteful for the Catholic Church, is that the original prophecies of St. Malachy (111 popes) are correct and at the passing of John Paul II the college of Cardinals elects a Pope who is not a true believer and he becomes the false Prophet. This could be devastating to the Catholic believers between the election of the Gloria Olivae Pope and the Rapture. This would indicate that the prophecies of Malachy were not from the Lord. If he (the Gloria Olivae) is a false pope, it will be extremely detrimental to the marginal or carnal Christians. A large portion of the Catholics (968 million) will accept the Gloria Olivae Pope as the Vicar of Christ and if he is the false prophet, he will turn them to the Antichrist and indicate he (the Antichrist) is the Savior of the world. This would be the False Religion of Revelation 17, Babylon the Harlot.

Now, I’m note really down with all of this “the rapture is coming stuff.” But I did find myself wondering the other day if the Pope even believed in God. I mean, what if you were a priest and lost your faith? You can’t just quit. The reason I wonder this is because his faith seems to mean spirited and exclusionary and so willing to let others suffer for doctrinally shaky points, like condoms being bad. I always thought faith was bout doing good, rather than pointing out bad in others. You know, mote in your eye, plank in mine. Although Jesus did say a bunch of screwed up, mean things. so maybe he believes in the mean Jesus.
The last pope was highly concerned that George Bush might be the anti-christ. (No, I’m not making this up.) The new pope was the instigator of the Kerry being denied communion scandal. He issued a letter saying that it would be evil for Catholics to vote for Kerry. You can’t pick a single deciding factor for an election, but without this guy, Bush would have lost. (No, I’m not making this up.) So, if Bush is the antichrist, and Benedict (who picked a name fitting to a prophesy he was certainly aware of) steered people towards Bush, then the rapture is coming and all of us secular humanists are doomed. (It also means that all of the new pope’s gay-baiting is actually the work of Satan, so maybe we’re less doomed than you’d think.)
The problem with this “interpretation” is that it has a saint receiving prophesy from Satan. Saints don’t usually relay words from the devil as that does tend to disqualify them from sainthood. But this guy was sainted so long ago, maybe they did less checking back then. Also, why should the rapture be all at once? What if it’s just the slow death of faith?
Tags: Celesteh, Pope

Thesis: 70 pages – 12 point 1.5 spaces Century Gothic font, counting bibliography. 18,310 words, counting bibliography. Still awaiting edits from advisor on last chapter.

Grad school life: Yesterday I woke up at 10:00 AM and met Anthony Braxton at 11:00. after several minutes of fussing with cables in the EMS (which had all been recently disconnected for Jascha’s concert), I played through my concert program for him. (The 4 channel version of my Fred Phelps piece has quit working for some reason.) He asked me if I was going to do a piece with DeLay attacking the judiciary. No!!! No more english text. No more american politics! I must go to France next year.
We went for lunch with Jessica and then I went home and worked on my bibliography. Angela came over for dinner and then left to go to a concert and I kept working on my bibliography (some of my favorite citations are below. I know it’s boring. I don’t care. Cola talked me out of posting all 11 pages.) I worked on it until 2:30 AM and then walked Xena, who desperately wants more exercise in her life) and then I went to sleep. This morning, err… afternoon, I got out of bed at 1:00 and then fixed all of my end notes so they go with my bibliography instead of just being urls. Now I ponder dinner, but my cover is exceedingly bare. Maybe I’ll have nutella on wonder (wheat) bread.
Random complaints: I’m allergic to the toilet paper that Aaron bought. I have skin allergies. I have to use hippie shampoo or I itch a lot. Right now, I itch a lot. Out of food. Nearly out of dog food. Raining. Pop culture seems to be at war with art music. And music seems to get singled out a lot. Why? What are people afraid of?
When I was in the compulsory period of my education, the prohibition against drinking and driving was so emphasized that I thought that wanting to drive must be one of the effects of drinking. You would drink a glass of beer and the overwhelming urge to get into a car and drive would seize you, but you had to resist. So when I finally started consuming alcohol, I was steeled. I was not going to suddenly want to go for a joy ride! Although after so much repetition if this idea, the thought would creep into my head. Sometimes when I’m drunk (which is rare) I announce “I want to go for a drive!” But I do not go, because I have the mental toughness to resist.
So last night, as I was assembling my bibliography, I was forced to revisit all my sources for pundit material. I only had about 10 citation to go. I wanted to be done. But I was reaching mental break down. Finally, I got to the section where O’Reilly was asserting that gay rights would lead people to want to marry goats. I was in a suggestible stage! This normally wouldn’t happen!
I am engaged to Billy. We haven’t set a date, as we’re awaiting the results of our court decision.
No I don’t like goats in any sort of disturbing, ASPCA-alerting or naughty way. I just feel like I should marry one.
For our honeymoon, we’re taking the O’Reilly cruise to the Caribbean, which we understand has plenty of vegetarian fare as falafel is served at every meal. All guests get a complimentary loofah.
Tag: Celesteh

Catholic Church Attempts to Derail Gay Rights in Spain

Can we all go back to fucking up the life of the brain dead woman in Florida again? Maybe we can dig her up and reinsert her feeding tube.

“A law as profoundly iniquitous as this one is not an obligation, it cannot be an obligation. One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is law.”
. . .
“This is not a matter of choice: all Christians… must be prepared to pay the highest price, including the loss of a job.”

They’re calling for massive civil disobedience against other people people loving each other. God is apparently anti-love. Because God is love. He needs all that love for himself. We can’t have any for each other.
It’s a not-so-secret goal of the Vatican to re-unify all Christian churches under the papacy. Maybe they’re trying to start with Fred Phelps. “The new Pope has described homosexuality as objectively disordered and an intrinsic moral evil.” Sort of a highbrow way of saying “God hates fags,” isn’t it?
“Asked about the Spanish Bill, [Cardinal Alfonso Lopes Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council on the Family] said:We cannot impose the iniquitous on people. . ..'” Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
(oh, heh, oops, I misread “iniquitous” as some funny form of “inquisitionous” which I took to mean something along the lines of “worthy of official inquiry and ecclesiastical punishment upto and including burning at the stake.” I’m standing by my pun.)
I can’t believe they made the head of the inquisition pope. I’m so upset about this.
Tags: Celesteh, Pope, Gay

Karlsberg, Jesse. “I had to open the bruise up to let some of the bruise blood come out to show them.” Silversand. December 09, 2004. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://silversand.blogspot.com/2004/12/i-had-to-open-bruise-up-to-let-some-of.html>

online magazine

Bowman, David. “Citizen Flynt.” Salon.com. July 8, 2004. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/07/08/flynt/index.html>

web page

Kuntz, Marcia Ed. “Who We Are” Media Matters For America. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://mediamatters.org/etc/about.html>
“Truthful Translations of Political Speech.” DiyMedia.net. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://www.diymedia.net/collage/truth.htm>

Discussion forum

Kahn, Doug. “Re: Burroughs and Burrows” Online Posting. Jan 31, 2005. d_cultuRe : panel > The P0litics of S0und / The Culture 0f Exchange. Tate Online: British and International Modern Art. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://www.tate.org.uk/contact/forums/onlineevents/thread.jsp?forum=43&thread=2471&tstart=0&trange=15>

More info

A Guide for
Writing Research Papers Based on
Modern Language Association
(MLA) Documentation

Outstanding Questions

Ok, let’s say you quote Coulter as her comments were reported on Media Matters . . . Would that look like:

Coulter, Ann, “Coulter labeled Dems who question qualifications of Condoleezza Rice and Clarence Thomas as ‘racist'”. Ed. Marcia Kuntz. Media Matters for America. November 18, 2004. Assessed April 21, 2005. <http://mediamatters.org/items/200411180009>

Or would you omit the “Coulter, Ann” and list it as “Kuntz, Marcia Ed.” ?
You know, i’ve kind of fudged bibliographies in the past and nobody has noticed, but this is going into the library, so I want to get it right.
Tag: Celesteh

Thesis: done, pending advisor comments (I don’t really expect anything serious) and still needing bibliography. 60 pages.

Awareness: I showed up to work today and dutifully sat in the lab and answered questions during my office hours. It wasn’t for over an hour later until I remembered that I don’t have office hours on thursdays
Health: as a horse, but consuming alcohol in moderation (and not so moderation) every night is probably ungood.
Stress Level: see title
Recent Activities: Went for lunch at a place in town called the English Tea Garden. Doilies covered every surface. Jessica and I were the youngest people there by 40 years, easily. The food was really good. Last night: saw Andrew Dewar et al in concert. Brought Xena. She was kind of too loud. Party at my house afterwards. I drank aperitif instead of Jagermeister to stay sober, but it didn’t work. Tuesday night: Jascha & Philip’s concert. (I have no idea if Phillip spells his name with 1 or 2 l’s)
other updates: um, my attention has no wandered away from this blog post
Tags: Celesteh, Thesis

Many gay Catholics disappointed with cardinals’ choice for pope, seeing Ratzinger as church’s most outspoken foe of equal rights

Talking about how the gay catholic group Dignity was effected by the 1986 “Letter to the Bishops on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.” The Chronicle says that “Local chapters of DignityUSA used to meet on church property, but after members publicly rejected the Vatican’s 1986 letter, they were no longer welcome, said Sam Sinnett, the national president.”
The letter to the bishops was released in English. Not latin or any other language. It’s extremely unusual for Vatican texts to be released in English. Since the letter warns against letting gay people talk to each other, it was clearly aimed directly at Dignity. It’s understandable why they would want to be perceived as having agency, but they would have been banned from catholic churches no matter what. Catholic churches are only for opposite-sex married people and celibate people. Everyone else should leave. So I did.
You know what the word “catholic” means? Universal.
Tags: Gay, Catholic, Dignity, Pope, Celesteh