Bendigo Art Gallery (May 2014) " Genius and Ambition: The Royal Academy of Arts, London 1768-1918"

Godzilla (2014) in Melbourne – fun with numbers

No spoilers below, so you can read on if you haven’t seen this entertaining film.

According to IMDB this 2014 Godzilla is “355 feet” tall (108 m).  I knew this before I saw the film, but still thought the producers got the scale wrong when he (?) was fighting in the city. I now think I’m wrong and they’re right.  He is huge!

I work on level 28 of 333 Collins St – the top level. My memory is an average level is 10 ft, so I’m about 300 feet up (91 m). But the Big G would still be 55 feet (16 m) above me at work.

To say Hello, could he make his way up Port Phillip Bay?  Yep, easily. It’s average depth is 26 ft (8m).  So, just above G’s ankle.


And finally this is Melbourne so I gotta get the MCG in here. Well, I can get it in, but Godzilla probably can’t get in. IMDB says his tail alone is 550 feet long (167m). The widest part of the playing field of the MCG is only 160m. So even just hit tail wouldn’t quite fit…

The Eagles–great new 3 hour documentary

I first really listened to The Eagles when their mega-hit Hotel California album burst out (1976 according to Wikipedia, but maybe that’s when the recording started or USA release date? I recall 1977, so I was 16).  I was vaguely aware of Take It Easy, but was a bit young when it came out.

This was about the same time Fleetwood Mac drifted into my musical frame too. Arguably both bands were hitting their peak or even dropping by about this time. The words “drugs” and “excess” spring to mind.

It was only years later that I discovered both bands had had long and interesting histories. Fleetwood Mac can wait, because I’m now watching a fascinating 3 hour documentary on the Eagles.

You know what, I've changed my mind and just deleted about 3 paragraphs I’d written :  I'm not going to spoil the story.  Suffice to say I have a new found respect for them and recommend you check out the History of The Eagles (2013)

Songs too slow or fast and we didn’t know

I should add allegedly to that title. Anyway, two things came together in my ever active mind just this morning. The first being an ABC RN show/podcast on how music activates a number of our brains centres all at once. One of them being memory (event-recall) related. It seems that music buries itself deep inside our brains.

The other being that some recordings were recorded or mastered too fast or slow. But, tying back to the first point, we’ve heard the ‘original’ recording so often, the ‘corrected’ one just doesn’t sound right. The original is burnt into the grey matter.

The first example is 1930’s early-Blues legend Robert Johnson. It seems his 78rpm recordings were sped up a fair bit. I always thought this was the case, to be honest. Maybe  photos of him playing “Crossroads” – or other archival sources – showed him playing the chords of A, D and E; that is in the key of A.  Yet the 78rpm is something like in the key of B or Bb; a fair bit faster. People have slowed it down to “A” again and it does – to me at least – sound more realistic. Original first:

And now the slowed down to "A"

The other one was news to me. It seems the first few Doors albums were slowed down during their original recording/mastering whatever. For 40 years we have, apparently, been listening to slowed down Light My Fire!  This comes from those who saw them in concert, examined the sheet music and may have heard master recordings.

This one is more subtle – and the Sped Up one has a different vocal mixing which adds another layer of newness.  It does sound a bit more like Jim M in their other songs. Firstly the one we are used to:

Now the slightly sped up one:

This is something worth having a look at.  I'm sure there are other examples and I'll have a look later.

Opening chord to a Hard Days Night

It is probably the most famous - and argued about - opening chord in music history. It turns out that it's not one chord, but a band - plus their Producer - all playing different 'chords/notes'. I think these guys have it right (listen to audio clip at the end) - but they missed George Martin who added even more notes on a piano. As the clip says:

Electric 12 string (George H):  F chord, but with G on top and bottom strings, plus C on the 2nd bottom string (B)
Bass (Paul)  D note
Rhythm Guitar (John)  D sus 4 (F# becomes G)

Listen to the magic sound, right near the end, when they play all 3 at once. What a beauty, no wonder they sound excited at having nailed it :

I'm also sure I read that George H says he repeats his opening F (+G +G +C) chord at the end, but plays each note; arpeggio style.