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Jupiter drops (two).

There’s this co-worker I no longer share an office with which is probably for the best, since she didn’t really like my music. (Still doesn’t. Except the Ella.) She’d mutter about those fake Russian lesbians or that creepy Scottish guy (I think it was “Scottish Lips” was how she knew he was Scottish) and the Bollywood (though the Bollywood was okay, maybe a little funny, and you never know what they’re singing about), and maybe she had a point about how hard it was to work to Muslimgauze. (Before her, before I ripped our entire collection to a 60-gig drive the size of my hand, the guy I used to share the office with brought his CDs and I brought my CDs and we’d trade off and that’s how I learned about RJD2 and Sigur Rós and how he learned about Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Robin Holcomb, maybe.)

But the thing she really hated was the mashups. —She didn’t like covers in general, really; she wanted the platonic ideal, the ultimate Joe Meek effect, the one you hear on Akashic radio, and I can sometimes see her point: I’ve never been so disappointed as when I sat down to listen to Vladimir Ashkenazy’s rendition of Sibelius’ Fifth and found the sombre joy in the face of the inevitable that builds to those staggering, heart-stopping beats at the end of the third movement transformed to something nameless, brusquely middle-management, impatient to be done and up and on to the next. (It’s Lorin Maazel and his Wiener Philharmonik you’ll be wanting.) —But the mashups really got her goat: the look on her face, say, when Kelis starts rapping about her milkshake over Brian May’s crunch?

I believe I’ve mentioned these days I work in a document coding shop? Back when I was still out on the floor, back before iPods and iTunes, or at least their ubiquity, somebody set up a tinny little radio and left it tuned to this soft rock station day in, day out to help us get through the tedium of day in, day out data entry. —I still get this uncontrollable tic whenever I hear the opening bars of “Drops of Jupiter.”

  1. almostinfamous    Apr 4, 09:26 am    #

    the first time i heard that song off of hip-hopera, i was floored. my roommates, not so much. they were not particular fans of queen, so no big surprise there.

    also, being from india, i am frequently scared that i don’t know what teh bollywood’s is talking about.

    and drops of jupiter is a lot like like the b-sharps


  2. Kip Manley    Apr 4, 12:55 pm    #

    Hip-Hopera’s a work of mad genius, but it’s From Detroit to JA that has the triumph: “Closer to My Girl.” —And I was maybe thinking of dropping Asha Bosle’s name, or Vijaya Anand, but really, “Bollywood” is how I know the stuff and refer to the stuff and for all that I love playing it it’s still “stuff” to me.

    And is there really a Wikipedia entry for every Simpson’s episode? Lord help us.


  3. almostinfamous    Apr 4, 08:44 pm    #

    not every simpsons’ episode… just most of them.


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