Nathan's Lucubrations

I probably should have thought of this earlier, but there are more than a few blogs entitled "Nathan's Musings". At least mine shows up fairly close to the top, but that also means it's too late to change it now. Or is it?

I've always been amused by words that have fallen out of fashion; it's funny where they turn up, and they have a certain flavor, a certain je ne sais quoi that make them interesting to me. Perhaps it's just that they are not common, something new (to me at least). Words like ablution and accoutrements.

I think we lose something when we let certain words fall out of use. Much like some foreign words (like simpatico) which the native speakers claim don't have an equivalent in english, forgetting words with different shades of meaning limits our expressiveness. Much as someone curses when they are angry and so they can't muster the concentration to form a proper epithet, we end up not saying exactly what we mean.

With all that said, I'm going to rename this blog to "Nathan's Lucubrations", mostly because it doesn't turn up a lot of search results in Google, but also because I like it. I can't guarantee all my entries from now on will be written at night, though ;)

Yet again, I'm pressed for time, so I'll toss another entry into my ongoing attempts to edify the Internet and lift worthy works of art out of the shadows. This time, it's "Vélos" by Boom Boom Beckett, yet another band whose music I came across whilst randomly sampling Jamendo. Unfortunately, they only have one album and a single up on Jamendo, but I have to say that both please me, albeit in different ways.

"Vélos" is a nice little laid back jazzy album, which, while not a masterpiece, definitely has some very nice tracks. The whole album is technically competent, but "M.eur Chagall", "Salsa di Soy" and "Oat Flakes" definitely make this album worth downloading for any jazz fan.

The single is a remix of "Salsa di Soy", and it takes it in a more techno-ish direction. Fairly amusing, especially if you've ever had an disagreement with a fellow performer over chords or notes.