Asymmetrical Information

"We as Americans are completely obsessed and wrapped up in... having cash in the bank"

Odd, I thought that Americans were obsessed with precisely the opposite: racking up enough consumer debt to choke an ox. I must be looking at statistics on the wrong kind of Americans; I'd much prefer Madonna's hypthesized species.

I thought I was the only one intent on racking up enough debt to choke an ox. Glad to hear I'm not alone.

Given her recent enlightenment, I'm sure Madonna is currently in the process of writing out cheques donating the bulk of her significant fortune to charity. You know, gaining happiness by helping out her "fellow man".

I suppose we should try take her opinion at least somewhat seriously. After all, Madonna has more first-hand experience with the 'money doesn't buy happiness' thesis than most of us will ever have.

tried. couldn't do it.

Comments like this from celebs bring to my mind visions of rich plantation owners talking about how happy and carefree the slaves must be....

Presumably she's had a glance at the Dixie Chicks sales figures (still number one in the country charts, etc) and deduced that America-bashing is the new cool trend for Americans. Bandwagon-jumper.

Jane Galt wrote:

"...there may be just a few people who, without performing everything short of an on-air gynecological exam to scandalize and attract the public, came to the understanding that extreme wealth and fame are poorly correlated with happiness."

I'll give you the fame part, but I used to work with lots of economists, and they all agreed on one fundamental economic truth: it is better to be young, healthy and wealthy than to be old, sick and poor.

People get philosophical for all sorts of reasons: being wealthy, being poor, succeeding, failing, surviving a near-fatal experience. I don't see why she should have to shut the f*ck up. After all, who would no better that money does not bring happiness than someone who has money? This doesn't mean that I take Madonna too seriously. Hollywood types tend to be a little flaky and fickle. But I'd sooner listen to a sermon by Madonna than many others who preach to the public.

Really, why does Madonna have any less of a moral right to speak her mind than Jane, or any of the gazillion bloggers out there that express every thought -- valuable or not, relfective or not, original or not -- that enters their minds?

Maybe the world would be better off if only the truly educated and wise had a voice, and the intellectual rabble would be content to just watch reality television. But then there'd be only a dozen people on CNN and about a dozen blogs to read. That's fine by me, I guess, as long as I get to pick 'em.

intellectual rabble -- I meant unintellectual rabble.

Oh yeah, plus I think Madonna is hot. I know, I know. I can't explain it. But some things are just unexplainable.

It is interesting that the generosity toward her 'fellow man' doesn't extend to those who would like to get her music for free off the internet. She chose different words for those fellows. It isn't money she is worried about -- that's clear from this interview, so it must be the law that she is upholding.

A guess is that after the most recent reviews, those who her music for free may be the only ones wanting it at all -- it is part of her new market demographic and it comes just at the time when her philosophy of life is changing to align with it: she wants to help her fellows and here is an entire internet full of fellows who want help.

Good karma DOES pay off in the end.

Amitava, as long as Madonna is speaking for herself, she may say anything she wants. i frankly don't give a rat's ass. but she says, she is speaking for america

"We as Americans are completely obsessed and wrapped up in a lot of the wrong values -- looking good, having cash in the bank, being perceived as rich, famous and successful or just being famous,"

the above are her values; my values are educating my children, having some cash in the bank after educating my children and having enough energy to go fly fishing when my children are all pursuing their education.

with regards to:
looking good-not a priority, although i could shed a few pounds
being rich-see above for education
being famous-no thank you
being successful-3 happy and well educated children is my idea of success.

I'm moving on with my life, hope madonna will do the same.

from the kemo sabe link:

"I have read that Kemosabe in the Navajo language means "soggy bush," or "soggy shrub." I don't believe they would have named their camp "soggy bush". There are a lot of things I could say at this point, but none of them are tasteful, so I'll move along."

Best laugh I've had all day. But I'm strange.

fub, double-check the heading. Mindles H. Dreck wrote this one.

Furthermore, fub, the wording was "extreme wealth" and I think it's a stretch to suggest economists have an opinion on that and happiness (thinking of utility perhaps?).

What is "vocoder"?

She's also come to realize at her age that Satan/evil resides in all of us and we spend our life fighting him/it, or some such thing via People Mag.

It took her almost 45 years to figure that out? Someone wasn't paying attention in church.

AJ - I was simulating Cher's vocoded voice with the "libe affer blub" bit. Actually, the early pioneer in vocoding was Peter Frampton. I don't know if you are old enough to remember the love version of "Do You Feel Like We Do", with the extended guitar/voice box solo (Wayne's World - "this album was issued to everyone in the suburbs"). That was a very different technology, but similar sound idea of combining voice tone shaping and non-vocal sounds.

A vocoder is an audio processor that captures the characteristic elements of an an audio signal and then uses this characteristic signal to affect other audio signals. The technology behind the vocoder effect was initially used in attempts to synthesize speech. The effect called vocoding can be recognized on records as a "talking synthesizer", made popular by artists such as Stevie Wonder. The basic component extracted during the vocoder analysis is called the formant. The formant describes the fundamental frequency of a sound and its associated noise components.

The vocoder works like this: The input signal (your voice saying "Hello, my name is Fred") is fed into the vocoder's input. This audio signal is sent through a series of parallel signal filters that create a signature of the input signal, based on the frequency content and level of the frequency components. The signal to be processed (a synthesized string sound, for example) is fed into another input on the vocoder. The filter signature created above during the analysis of your voice is used to filter the synthesized sound. The audio output of the vocoder contains the synthesized sound modulated by the filter created by your voice. You hear a synthesized sound that pulses to the tempo of your voice input with the tonal characteristics of your voice added to it.

(source)

As Mindles notes, Peter Frampton didn't use a vocoder; he used a "talk box", an altogether more primitive and weirder technology. The squawk box is a small amplifier and speaker on the ground, with a tube coming up from the speaker to your microphone stand. You play the guitar, the sound comes out the small speaker and travels up the tube, which you have by now wrapped your mouth around, and you "shape" the guitar sound by moving your mouth. I swear I am not making this up. Presumably the same effect is achieved these days in a more hygienic manner.

I also think that the solo in question is from "Show Me The Way", but I may be wrong.

And finally to note that the technology on the Cher record is a bit more advanced than the good old vocoder ... the voice sounds weird because it's been forcibly pitch-mapped onto the notes so that Cher's trademark swooping glissandi turn into sudden jumps. I don't think the signal has been comingled with anything else. And of course, vocoder was an analogue technology ... I'm boring myself now.

re. Frampton Solo - on "Frampton Comes Alive" he uses the fellatiotalk box on both songs. "Do You Feel Like We Do" was, of course, the cliche air guitar song on the live album.

[please ignore obvious signs of misspent youth]

re. Cher - "swooping glissandi"? Bovine moanings?

anony-mouse wrote:

"fub, double-check the heading. Mindles H. Dreck wrote this one."

Yikes! Sorry anony-mouse, my vocoder was acting up. Yeah, that's it.

Then Mindles H. Dreck wrote:

"Furthermore, fub, the wording was "extreme wealth" and I think it's a stretch to suggest economists have an opinion on that and happiness (thinking of utility perhaps?)."

Uh-oh. Now I've started something. In all honesty I was just commenting tongue-in-cheek.

Since you're enforcing the adjective, if I could choose between youth, health and wealth, or youth, health and extreme wealth, I'd take the extreme option.

But I'm not an economist. I'll concede that an economist wouldn't.

I'll duck and run now, as soon as I disentangle my foot from my mouth.

Say what you will. Madonna believes in the free market, whatever she says, and does whatever the free market dictates. She even tried porn, early on. If she is a crass, self-serving hypocrite, it is because these characteristics happen to be successful survival traits in her line of work.

She has been at the top of her game for upwards of two decades. If the return on her efforts is not panning out as it used to, perhaps domestic relaxation (by comparison with how she's lived thus far, surely) does sound more appealing than another image remake. Or not - perhaps this is another "remake" of sorts. However the lady likes to play it.

In any case, hat's off to her. She's make loads of loot, and hasn't shot anyone in the process for it, so good for her.

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