Matthew Rutledge: mattrut.com: Page 3

Disco Future / Disco Past

By matthew on 2009/11/24

I’ve been on a big Donna Summer kick lately, paying harder attention to overlooked gems stuck in the middle of her ‘classic’ albums. There was a time in musical history where the vanguard was the mainstream, where the biggest star was also part of the biggest paradigm shift in popular music, and the story was written by Summer and Moroder.

It of course began with “I Feel Love”, but there are a number of magnificent tracks from the same era that are formed with the basic recipe from that song. The recipe, of course, is a hypnotic, robotic, yet warm and organic computerized dance beat. Surely Moroder felt it was incomplete, as it was very much not digital. It is a freak of nature, something both artificial yet very unique, not exactly the same twice.

Two of her songs have taken on a special meaning for me lately, because of their subject matter:

“Working the Midnight Shift” is one of those electro-disco masterpieces that holds its own against the 30 years of music that came after. I’ve been working a late night temp job lately, so it has been the absolute jam that keeps me sane through these tougher times. It seems to be the first of what was several of her songs that feature the perspective of working women in arduous or thankless situations.

“I’m working the midnight shift for that extra little something, the things that are out of reach, I need so bad…”

Donna Summer – Working The Midnight Shift (1977)

God damn! Her voice, her inflection, the robotic drum machine, the way the song just effortlessly glides from start to finish. It is one of several Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder/Pete Bellotte masterpieces.

“Can’t Get to Sleep At Night” has also been on heavy rotation, because I suffer from pretty bad insomnia. It’s not as “computerized” as “Working the Midnight Shift”, simply because the production value had gotten much more slick as far as the synthesizers go, but it’s still fantastic.

Donna Summer – Can’t Get To Sleep At Night (1979)

And, of course, there is “Our Love”, a song that almost eclipses “I Feel Love” or any other song Donna sang that had the word love in it. To me, it is “I Feel Love II” – it is no less a predictor of future genres than its antecedent. Not only is that proven true by New Order’s “Blue Monday”, a song that notoriously took its sequencing pattern from “Our Love”, but the second half of the song simply predicts the future in a way few pop songs ever have.

Donna Summer – Our Love (1979)

I still lose a bit of my breath once “Our Love” hits 4:20 – it is an absolute revelation of music. It never ceases to floor me; Donna Summer never ceases to floor me. Music like that won’t be made again.

Posted in Disco, Music Tagged Disco, donna summer, electro-disco, electronic music, giorgio moroder, mp3 | 1 Response

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Mexigoogle 2: Monterrey

By matthew on 2009/11/22

Monterrey is not that far from the Texas border, only a few hours from Laredo, which is about 3.5 hours from Austin. As such, it is the city I am most likely to visit in Mexico any time soon. If I start doing really well with my money, I might sneak a visit in the up and coming months (it would have to be before April, because by then it starts to get extremely warm down there.)

I discovered this amazingly detailed guide to driving to Monterrey via the southern border crossing at Laredo. It has inspired me to take this trip, if I can afford it.

Here’s why, though – Monterrey is a true Latin American city within a day’s drive, much safer than the average Mexican metropolis. It also abuts the Sierra Madre Oriental, which is not the highest mountain range in Mexico, but is the most prominent range (consider that Monterrey is at about 1,500 feet above sea level, and Cerro El Potosi, 50 miles south of Monterrey, is 13,000 feet above sea level – that is a level of topographical prominence almost unseen in the United States. It is a few thousand feet more prominent than Denver is to the Rockies.)

As a result, mountains tower over Monterrey, and Google Maps shows that off.

Here are some of the more affluent parts of the region:

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Right up against the mountains in Southeast Monterrey:

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Downtown, complete with a Sears:

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I forget the bridge’s name, but it has to be a Calatrava:

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Here’s a Mexican 7-11 in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a suburb of Monterrey:

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Some weird store called “Waldo’s Mart”, in Northwest Monterrey:

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Looks like LA!

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Posted in Google Maps Street View Tagged google maps, mexico, monterrey, travelling | Leave a response

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Mexigoogle Part 1: Guadalajara

By matthew on 2009/11/20

It appears that Google Maps street view has moved to the first ‘developing’ country, Mexico. All the other countries heretofore were in the EU, Canada, the US, Australia, NZ, i.e. all places with HDI’s well above .900. Unless you looked hard discovered the most blighted of urban England or the American Northeast, you weren’t likely to discover something ‘totally different’ from middle class reality.

But Mexico is a different story, having an income stratification that makes New York City seem like Denmark. So the side streets of its major cities have the potential to expose us to a very different, but very interesting, urban landscape.

So far, it appears Google has added Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, D.F. (Mexico City and suburbs), and Puebla. Those cities alone accounts for much of Mexico’s upper and middle classes, so it makes sense.

Let’s go on a quick journey.

The first thing about Guadalajara I noticed was the shocking amount of graffiti. It reminded me of New York in the 1980’s. The trees are more shrubby and subtropical than I thought (jacaranda trees and palms); the terrain quite flat. It reminds me of what I saw in Colombia – a lot of 19th century buildings mixed with early modern mid-rises. It seems that the 1950’s-1970’s were good times for Latin America based on the prevalence of mid century skyscrapers.

If you pan around this map, you will see a traffic circle with a gigantic ugly supermarket taking up most of the real estate. But I love those directional signs!

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This is the upper class and relatively new commercial district, Puerta de Hierro. Pan around all the way and you’ll see a shopping mall with a Chili’s!

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The intersection of “Montreal” and “Bogota”, not too far from Puerto de Hierro:

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An older part of town with a fair amount of graffiti:

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A few political murals in a more run down part of town. PAN is one of the major political parties of Mexico. This resembles some of the political “billboards” I saw for local candidates in Barranquilla, Colombia – the same painting schemes, painted on similarly short walls.

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More to come!

Posted in Google Maps Street View Tagged cities, google maps, guadalajara, mexico, Screenshots, street view | Leave a response