Ableton Live and software synths like NI Absynth are a couple that come to mind.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 3:48 PM on July 3, 2008

Also, dedicated DSP (digital signal processing) units allow people to use lots and lots of audio plug-ins on acoustic sounds live without an audible CPU delay.

I haven't tried this yet, but the program Mainstage that is now bundled with Apple Logic was created for this purpose of processing sounds live.

I don't know whether pros look down on it, but I think Propellerheads Reason is a remarkably versatile program that could do what you're asking.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 3:54 PM on July 3, 2008

Yes, Marc Ribot, like desuetude said. His stuff isn't about speed, it's about feel--often being out-of-tune in just the right way. He has chops but he can convincingly pretend like he doesn't. One minute he pulls out gloriously screechy atonal skronk, and the next he sounds like Charlie Christian. Check out his stuff with the Lounge Lizards [Youtube, his solo starts at 3:30], Tom Waits, John Zorn, Elvis Costello or his band, the Cubanos Postizos (the prosthetic cubans).... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 12:27 PM on June 27, 2008

Music in South India from the Oxford Global Music series is a worthwhile, readable overview.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 8:10 AM on June 16, 2008 marked best answer

Also, there are a bunch of youtube videos that give you a sample of some of the different instruments:

Mridangam
Ghatam
Moorsing
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 8:23 AM on June 16, 2008

Post to Metafilter Music--we'd love to hear you.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 12:36 PM on June 13, 2008

That sounds very promising. Good luck with it. The one thing gear-wise that stuck out in your description was the interface. I think it would be worth it to chip in to buy an audio interface with 8 inputs and preamps and an ADAT lightpipe so that you can get 16 total. The M-Audio interface works fine for an individual, but I think you'll want to be able to place more of your sm58s at once. I think you can do this without losing your 'no-budget' status, really. In the U.S., you could do it... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:23 PM on May 31, 2008 marked best answer

Instead of a tablet, I'm waiting for Mac compatibility for the livescribe smartpen [link includes flash intro with audio] for this kind of note-taking.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 11:14 PM on May 27, 2008

I think a lot of these responses are satisfying to brainstorm in the abstract, but would be difficult to pull off in the heat of the moment without appearing defensive. It seems like performing how comfortable you are with yourself is better than making stuff up.

And if you really have to fend them off, the quick but effective suggestions of "Why do you ask? or "Aren't your even slightly embarrassed..." would do the trick.

It... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 5:13 PM on May 16, 2008

aninom, I think you're downplaying how obnoxious the original askers are being.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 5:00 PM on May 18, 2008

phrontist, nightdreams will haunt me every morning from now on.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:55 AM on May 17, 2008

Luazinha (Ms. umbú) swore by Juana Molina.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:48 AM on May 14, 2008

One good way to learn about the religions of the African diaspora is to netflix Ile Aiye, a documentary about the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé that shares a lot with Santeria.

It's directed by David Byrne, which makes it artier and more vibrant than a conventional documentary (and also gives scholars things to quibble about regarding it). All and all, however, I think it does a good job at working against the demonization of the religious practice.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:07 AM on May 13, 2008

The thing is, daveyt, your technique wouldn't work in this case, since many (most?) practitioners consider themselves to be both Catholic and members of Santeria/Candomblé/Haitian Vodou.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 9:12 AM on May 13, 2008

I've always heard that, at least in some parts of Latin America, people don't say "Estoy llena." I think "Estoy satisfecha" is a better bet.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:21 AM on May 6, 2008

Thanks everyone. These examples are great. I didn't know about the MC5 or Duke Ellington performances.

I have to say I'm skeptical of an explanation of the reception of Rite of Spring that bypasses cultural factors, though. Nonetheless, it's an interesting case.

Keep them coming!
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 5:04 AM on May 2, 2008

Nice, hydrophonic. Chris is a friend and colleague of mine. Another classic 1960s/1970s Brazilian example is Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil singing Calice, a song that uses double meanings in an attempt to get around censorship during the military dictatorship. In the video, you can see Buarque and Gil continuing to sing as the police are turning off his microphones during the song.

The crackdown was ultimately touched off when Buarque sang "greek rice"... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 1:32 PM on May 2, 2008

Múm - we have a map of the piano fits the bill, I think. Also see this kid's version.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:48 AM on May 2, 2008

As a new professor, I just had an experience that relates to your situation. A student came into my office the other day with a hangdog look and, peering up at me, revealed that she needed an extension on her paper because she just wasn't going to finish. It was a moment where I should have been stern, because she really didn't have a good reason for not having finished, but I just full-on burst out laughing.

Don't worry--she was puzzled, but didn't think it was cruel.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:31 AM on April 28, 2008

The bossa nova classic Desafinado (Off-key) by Tom Jobim is about itself. The first line is "If you think this is out of tune, my love..." only to defend the genre later "bossa nova is very natural..."
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:11 AM on April 28, 2008

What I want to know is: Has anyone taken it a step further and written a song about this kind of song. Something like, "Remember when we used to rock about rock, a long, long time ago?"
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:13 AM on April 28, 2008

Check out the Hotel San José, or the Austin Motel. Both are on South Congress, which has lots of buses running along it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 5:31 PM on April 22, 2008

Fructose, I think you may be lumping together the San Jose with the Austin Motel. I don't know the OP, and she doesn't mention a price range, so I included the San Jose because it is a pretty beautiful place design-wise, and it might be up her alley.

A quick room check on the Austin Motel and the Austin Folk House B&B, for example, came up with the Austin Folk House B&B being significantly more expensive as the Austin Motel.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:14 AM on April 23, 2008

oops. than, rather than as.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:15 AM on April 23, 2008

The first part is G Bm Em D (Dsus4)
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 9:47 AM on April 23, 2008 marked best answer

The B part is F G Em Am
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 9:48 AM on April 23, 2008 marked best answer

The third part (that starts around 2:00) is C D G
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 9:51 AM on April 23, 2008 marked best answer

I bet you could play with channeling tracks through NI GuitarRig 2 or IK Amplitube 2 and tweaking all of the settings until you get Guided By Voices-like sounds.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 4:31 AM on April 20, 2008

Stonehenge by Spinal Tap?
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 9:28 AM on April 15, 2008

I used Jonathan Lethem's article from Harper's "The ecstasy of influence: a plagiarism" with undergraduates as an overview, and they got a lot out of it.

It was also useful to look at Lethem's creative experiment with IP surrounding his latest book You Don't Love Me Yet. The book is about a band that becomes successful using someone else's lyrics. When the lyricist finds out that they've done this, instead of suing, he insists on joining the band. The most... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 4:14 PM on April 13, 2008 marked best answer

Yep, dumb terminal. I remember those from CompuCamp (!) as a kid.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 1:06 PM on April 13, 2008

Here are some relevant previous links, more bossa nova greats, a samba soul classic, forró, Siba and others from the Recife scene.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 12:54 PM on April 13, 2008

Here's why we should all be excited that By The Grace of God will be soon writing more songs. She has one of the best voices on Mefi Music.

I admit I'm not answering the question directly, but listening to her songs might give you a better sense of how she plans on using the guitar.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 8:57 AM on April 10, 2008

I saw it in at the Alamo in Austin, and it was pretty great on the big screen. Those kids were absolutely amazing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 8:28 PM on April 5, 2008

I don't know what is customary for a bar mitzvah, but based on what you've written, by all means don't invite them!
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 8:23 AM on April 2, 2008

As I understand it, it's not that there are X number of slots, its that there is $Y of money, at least on the country or region level. So if someone rejects an offer to go to one of the places with the highest dollar amount attached to it, potentially even two alternates going to cheaper places could be offered awards.

So wait and see how it shakes out. I've heard of several examples of alternates ultimately being awarded Fulbrights.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:59 AM on April 1, 2008

Oops. I mean "it's that there."
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 7:01 AM on April 1, 2008

Of course someone with a PhD on seventeenth-century sermons chimed in--ahh, the joys of ask metafilter.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:39 AM on March 21, 2008

Seconding Pollomacho that Bocas is a pretty great place. It was fascinating to hear Caribbean English, Guaymí languages and Spanish everywhere, not knowing which one someone was going to speak based on how they looked. At least that was how it seemed in the few days I was there.

I remember going on an adventure to sleep over on a small island called Zapatilla. I think that was what it was called. It was just us, our guide, a gorgeous little island, pelicans and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 7:48 PM on March 20, 2008 marked best answer

Mulatu Astatke and Ethio Jazz
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:39 PM on March 15, 2008

Seconding the suggestion of "I wanna be like you" from the Jungle Book. Los Lobos does a great version.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:23 PM on March 13, 2008

Since you mentioned in the OP that you don't mind academic perspectives on cool, here are a couple that I find insightful. They both look at the roots of hipness/cool in black/white race relations surrounding bebop:

Somewhere/Nowhere: Hipness as an Aesthetic by Phil Ford
The Musical Quarterly, 2002

The Problem with White Hipness: Race, Gender, and Cultural Conceptions in Jazz Historical Discourse by Ingrid Monson
Journal of the American Musicological Society, 1995
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 1:06 PM on March 11, 2008 marked best answer

I've heard non-singing members in multiple bands step and sing You Ain't Goin' Nowhere by Dylan for their moment in the spotlight.

It's the "Whoo-ee! Ride me high/Tomorrow's the day/My bride's gonna come" song.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:36 AM on March 6, 2008

What about urban exploration underneath the Twin Cities?

I'm only half serious--it seems amazing, but insane.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 9:06 PM on March 5, 2008

Derechos Autorales Reservados.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 7:41 PM on March 5, 2008 marked best answer

(All rights reserved)
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 7:46 PM on March 5, 2008 marked best answer

I would gladly check that blog daily. "Should I eat this?" questions are often the most entertaining on AskMeFi.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 3:35 PM on February 25, 2008

Seconding "Beige." And seconding anything by SE Hinton -- they're dated but her work totally holds up.
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 3:26 PM on February 23, 2008

I had serious weekly migraines for years. I was really sick of taking serious medicines to prevent and treat them, so I thought I'd follow the advice of this guy, even though I thought he was an exaggerating quack.

Everyone's headaches vary, but in my case, he was totally right. Caffeine was my trigger, but not right away--the withdrawal 24 hours later. This was true even with small amounts.

So for me, taking caffeine for what turned out to be... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 10:05 AM on February 21, 2008

Rita Lee, the lead singer of Os Mutantes, has a faux-exotic tune called "Hulla Hulla" that fits what you're asking. You can listen to it here (scroll down and click on Hulla Hulla).
posted to Ask Metafilter by umbú at 6:40 PM on February 15, 2008