Friday 5 August 2005

On holiday. For holiday I reading I brought Philip Tagg's hugely entertaining Ten Little Title Tunes (as recommended by Fred Frith) which argues from the UN Declaration of Human Rights the need for a semiotic musicology of the mass media, and then goes on to develop one with the necessary combination of academic rigour and fun, as you'd expect from someone who wrote his PhD thesis in 1979 on the theme from Kojak. It touches on countless subjects, mostly with great skill, but it's a book in sore need of an editor. 

Easier going (despite its very serious subject matter) is the Freemuse collection 'Music Censorship Today', and I've also brought several good books about Bach and baroque music, none of which I've opened yet.

I've been enjoying the new album by The Shortwave Set - they get extra points for a great title 'The Debt Collection' - which features the best bit of ukelele sampling you will hear for some time.