The Fredösphere

Weird.  As of Wednesday, my traffic has been running at two-thirds of normal.  Analysis of my Sitemeter stats reveals no obvious explanation.  My ratio of regulars to Googlers remains steady.  I'm not coming down from any link-induced spike.  My only guess is that Sitemeter's server is nodding off at regular intervals.  Or it could be you all are tired of me and have moved on to the next big thing ... no, no, it can't be that, can it?  The Fredösphere has become the Nehru jacket of the blogösphere?  It can't be.

Over at the Composers Forum at Sequenza21, Galen Brown posted something that mentioned the Phrygian Inflection as a common expression of death.  You can read my full comment there (well, no you can't, since I exceeded the word limit, but you can get the gist).  The short version is, anyone interested in artistic expression should read up on the research of Manfred Clynes.  He invented a device called the Sentograph as a means of capturing expressions of fundamental emotions (joy, grief, anger, etc.) in the most elemental way possible.  The Sentograph is a simple lever you push with your finger when you hear a signal.  The motion you generate is recorded and can be graphed.  Clynes found these graphs were consistent and did not vary, even according to widely divergent cultural sources.

Clynes found that Sentograph data collected while subjects were listening to music revealed that each composer had a unique Sentograph "fingerprint."  There's much more I could describe, but I'll stop here.  This is the place to go for more.  Also try googling "Sentics," the name Clynes gave to this area of study.

Meanwhile....

The cartoon quartet Gorillaz' sophomore album Demon Days, said to be darker than the debut album, features the London Gospel Choir, rock legend Ike Turner, and actor Dennis Hopper who provides spoken-word "intonations" on the track "Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head." 

Does that sentence make anyone else besides me feel disoriented and deeply out of touch?  No word on if Hopper dies during the last track.

Also....

A low-budget film used a formulaic plot but featured a bunch of endearing kids; it exceeded all box office expectations and enjoyed phenomenal international success, including an Oscar nomination.  Let the lawsuits begin!