I have a confession to make. I own a Kenny G CD. I bought it with my own money.

There were, however, a couple of mitigating factors at play that you should know about. I was 15. I’d never heard of him. I listened to about 20 seconds of each track in the shop, and it sounded ok, so I bought it. (When I got it home I realised that it’s exactly the same as those 20 seconds, repeated over and over and over and ….) It’s at the very bottom of my CD collection, having been played through once only.

But I do own the CD. And as a sax player, I cringe each and every time I hear someone speaking approvingly of him.

Which is why this essay by Pat Metheney on the musical and cultural value—or lack thereof—of Kenny G’s music is so awesome:

By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture – something that we all should be totally embarrassed about – and afraid of.

(h/t kottke)

Michael Jensen has been putting together a list of a bunch of blogs written or contributed to by Moore College Students. It’s an interesting and eclectic list.

One of the sites in this compilation I came across has to do with the perennial problem of church music – what is it for, how do you do it well, and what are the really sucky things that should never be done anywhere? What are The Rules?

A taste:

If you are a double clapper, just cut it out. Clap on the beat if you want, but if you think it’s a good idea to bust out a double clap at the end of the line, or the double-time clap in the bridge (who does that!?), then your hands should be gaffa-taped to your sides until you learn your lesson.

I don’t know who it’s by, but it’s a cracker.

Australian Idol: Half-decent voice + personal sob-story = ticket to Sydney.

11:30 pm, Sunday night: Guy across the road is playing saxophone very loudly. Playing is actually a generous term. If I hadn’t heard him play before (at similar times of the day night) I would be firmly convinced he’s never played before. Or even seen a sax.

10 minutes ago: I walk over to ask him to call it quits. He’s drunk, and ‘playing’ along to jazz coming out very loud from his stereo. Glad I live across the street, not next door.

Now there’s banging on his door from his neighbours. Shouting, swearing, threats. Lots of it.

Cops a-coming.

There’s a flickr group I stumbled across set up to chart out songs graphically, which is a neat idea. My favourite is a map:

There is a wide variety of other submissions. Some of my favourites include: bar graphs, timelines, decision trees, more charts, calendars, processes, venn diagrams, binary outcomes, and more charts.

Fun.

Here’s another beautiful music clip from Tripod (with Eddie Perfect).

They’re singing Paul Kelley’s Middle of the Air.

The lyrics are a bit of a Psalm 23/1 Thessalonians 4/John 13 mashup, which is pretty remarkable given this recording is by (as far as I know) a bunch of non-Christian blokes on ABC’s The Sideshow, of all places.

I can sing a bit, but listening to this makes me wish I could, you know, sing.

Enjoy.