Sexual Harrassment Panda and other stuff

I know all of you old timers are bored with all the repeats, but this little period has actually been pretty good for me, because I'm seeing a bunch of episodes I've never seen before.

My 17 year old brother and I basically started watching it regularly this summer, although before that time we had both seen some SP at irregular intervals. It was really big at my old school (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) when I was a freshman, but somehow I just kind of avoided that particular bandwagon.

But hey, I'm on now! Completely. It's amazing how addictive this show is. :-) I liked last night's episode, especially one particular moment between Kyle and his dad- you'll have to forgive me here, because my memory is not perfect and I know some of you know this stuff word for word- where Kyle's dad is talking about how we all live in a "democratic society, and Democrats make all the laws about sexual harrassment that tell us what we can and can't say." And then Kyle comes back with, "Isn't that facism?" and his father says, "No, it isn't facism because we don't call it that!" Ow. As an editor of a collegiate independent newspaper that leans towards the Libertarian camp, I really appreciated the clear statement in that little scene!! Oh, but I also loved the silliness- the island of misfit mascots was a hoot ("Do you boys know not to stare directly into the sun?") as well as the trial of Everyone vs. Everyone. Also the little moment after Cartman won the suit against the school, when he takes off his coat and does that little victory dance- he IS a little ass-sucker, BTW. :-)

The rainforest ep a few weeks ago also had a really cutting moment in the revolutionary camp. I believe the line was: "You white Americans make me sick. You waste food and oil and everything else because you are so rich, and then you tell the rest of the world to save the rainforest because you like its pretty flowers." NICE. I also like the revamped musical number at the end- "...all you activists can go f*ck yourselves-" with the intertitles. My dad actually laughed at that one.

My brother and I went and saw the movie in July and thought it was hysterical. The soundtrack is now my little obsession- does anybody else have any music background here? I took voice lessons for a few years and then did collegiate a capella, and it's made me pretty sensitive to some more technical aspects of music in general. In this line, I find the SP: BLU soundtrack to be quite impressive- it wasn't just little ditties they were singing, it was REAL music. Did Trey and Matt write the music themselves? If they did, I'm doubly impressed. There are several moments in the CD that show that whoever did the music had atleast some sense of harmony and rhythym. The final chord of Satan's number is FANTASTIC. Also, in the ending reprise of "Quiet Mountain Town," there are a few voices that go up in a great harmony on the syllable "-tain." "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch," which is one of my personal favorites, has really cool synchopation in the vocal accompaniment, with the other kids singing "bitch" in counterpoint to Cartman.

Anyways, I've done quite enough babbling. Time to stop procrastinating and get my homework done. :-)

Regards, YoungTOSFan

<< I find the SP: BLU soundtrack to be quite impressive- it wasn't just little ditties they were singing, it was REAL music. Did Trey and Matt write the music themselves? If they did, I'm doubly impressed.>>

Pretty remarkable, wasn't it? The songs were written by Trey Parker, and the arrangements were by Marc Shaiman. Trey Parker was both a Japanese and Music major in college, which shows, doesn't it? There was also a wonderful article about how Marc Shaiman arranged the music in the July 19, 1999 issue of The New Yorker, which you may want to get.

BTW- since you have a musical background, do you have any idea what mixed Ellydian (spelling?) scales are? If you've seen Cannibal, there's a hilarious exchange about keys that takes place where this is mentioned. You'd probably find it even funnier than most people. But what the hell does this particular term mean?

The term is "mixolydian".

Think of it this way: you get a "major" scale by playing all the white keys on the piano in order from C to the C one octive higher, right? Well, you get a "mixolydian" scale by playing all the white keys on the piano in order from G to the G one octive above it. It sounds ALMOST like a major scale except that the 7th step is lower. Several really old folk songs are in the mixolydian mode.

NOTE: Do not confuse this with a "lydian" scale, which you get by playing the white notes from F to F.

<<BTW- since you have a musical background, do you have any idea what mixed Ellydian (spelling?) scales are?>>

<<The term is "mixolydian".>>

Many thanks.

Now I am well and truly intimidated.

In article ,

That's nothing. You should see the weird and convoluted things Gregorian chant meant when they talked of using the Mixolydian mode. *shudder*

Although the LYDIAN mode, actually, is used in jazz quite a bit. Think of the opening theme to the Jetsons, or the Simpsons.

[email] wrote:

(snip)

How about the "Phrygian" (sp?) mode (something I dredged up from History of Music - from the days of Gregorian chant, IIRC)

Bill Lynch

Okay. These are all played on the white keys, i.e., the C scale:

Phrygian - from E to E Lydian - from F to F Mixolydian - from G to G

Transpositions to other scales

Phrygian - from 3rd to 3rd Lydian - from 4th to 4th Mixolydian - from 5th to 5th

• Alfred's Pocket Dictionary of Music

Hey!

Just to say keep watching the show! It's great and I'm glad you like it so much!

Best Wishes,