I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: PINK FLOYD-Atom Heart Mother (1970).

I decided it was time to review an old album, just to mix it up with all the new stuff I’ve been listening to lately. And, so I went deep into the well, and pulled out Atom Heart Mother. Back in high school, we used to sit around and profoundly discuss music and TV, (but not books, see how times have changed!). Anyhow, turns out one of my friends’ brothers was a big Pink Floyd fan (as was I) and so my friend, although not a big Pink Floyd fan himself, knew enough to discuss them.

This album was always my go-to for an amusing conversation because he declared it was SDI–seriously drug influenced, his highest negative rating. I mean, duh, the cover features a cow’s butt! Almost as a backlash to his dislike for the album, I began to listen to it even more. And, I really began to enjoy it.

Fans of popular Pink Floyd (The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon) will hardly recognize the band that made Atom Heart Mother. The first song is a side-long composition called “Atom Heart Mother” clocking in at twenty-three minutes! It starts off with a horn section playing some atonal notes, until it kicks in to a slow, flowing, and very catchy melody. After a few minutes, the Pink Floyd signature organ sound comes in followed by…violins (!). After a somewhat mournful section comes a long, winding David Gilmour guitar solo, and it proceeds apace. The middle break features some whacked out keyboard sounds and reintroductions of themes from earlier in the piece. And, then the main theme starts again, as it builds to a conclusion. Oh, and let’s not forget the choir! SDI, indeed!

I really enjoy this song, and even today, many years out of high school, I found myself kicking back and really grooving to this monster. It may not be as successful as their other epics, such as “Echoes” or “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” but this one is instrumental (except for the wordless choir) so it gets extra points for that!

Just to make things seem even weirder, the next song is a gentle acoustic ballad called “If,” which is followed by even more horns in the super-cool folky freak-out “Summer 68” full of bah-bahs and a great chorus. Another gentle folk song “Fat Old Sun” is followed by the very literal “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast.” This song is even more bizarre than the title track, as the song opens with (presumable Alan) making breakfast and, the most quotable echoed line in musical history “Marmalade, I like marmalade (Marmalade, I like marmalade.)” The song is in three parts and is rather meandering for all of its 13 minutes. It’s nowhere near as good as “Atom Heart Mother” but holds a nice place in my memory if only for the marmalade.

[READ: September 18, 2007] “Scroogled”

This story is a scary look at what could happen if Google were to join forces with the Department of Homeland Security. As we all know, Google rules the internet. We all use the search engine, and, increasingly, all of their other fantastic features. Well, what if, in an attempt to appeal to the Republican base, they decided to give all of their searching technology to the DHS, to allow for screening of individuals. Nothing illegal, of course, just seeing, essentially what kind of sponsored links have shown up in your emails, or Google searches, to determine what kind of things you’re interested in.

The story concerns Greg, a former Google employee who takes a month sabbatical in Mexico. On his return to the U.S., he discovers that Immigration is now “brought to you by Google.” He is instantly pulled aside for the deviant nature of the sponsored links of his Gmail account. Things degenerate for him from there. His friend Maya, a current employee of Google is working on a way to clean people’s Google records. When he goes to her for help, he realizes that things are even worse than he imagined.

This story was very short, but painted an all-too-plausible picture of what the “war on terror” could do. It makes you want to divest all of your relationships with Google. And then you realize that Google is just too useful to do that, and you hope that Google never deviates from its stated message ‘Don’t Be Evil.’

The story is totally worth a read, and is available here.