Blue Öyster Cult is one of those bands that, in my youth, I thought was ... ok. As a dyed-in-the-wool prog rocker, they just weren't quite notey enough for me. I can still, however, whistle/hum most of the guitar solo from the bridge of Don't Fear the Reaper, and I always thought that the tongue-in-cheek lyrics combined with the badass riff made Godzilla a fun song. The first time I heard Godzilla was when a friend of mine sang it, complete with the riff, one evening when we were hanging out (I think I was…
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Christopher Molla
Phonometricist, bad subject
Chris composes for instrumental ensembles, writes songs, makes electro-acoustic music, sound art of various types, and does sound design. He was a founding member of the now venerable, though still notorious Camper Van Beethoven.
In his 30 years as a music educator, he has worked with students ranging from infants to college undergraduates.
Current projects include an ongoing collaboration with his wife, writer and artist Jessica Molla. They write, record and perform as Small Birds of Sound.
Chris holds a BA in music from UC Santa Cruz, and an MA in music composition from Mills College (but the doesn't hold them too tightly). Then there's that MFA in digital arts and new media from UCSC, for which he focused on sound art and theater sound design. His teachers in composition and theory include Anthony Braxton, Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, David Cope, Mary Badarak, David Rosenboom, Ben Leeds Carson, and Rick Cox.
Wanna be a Rebel? Study, Think, Make Stuff.
This is a re-post from about three years ago (the Trump administration), salvaged from a previous website. These ideas will be relevant as long as human civilization lasts, so here you go.
We were in the midst of our seasonal rearranging of furniture, and I recovered a copy of the May 2019 edition of Harper's that Jess picked up from the library's pre-read-magazine-exchange-box thingy. It had slipped down between the wall and Rosie's bed - not sure how it made its way into Rosie's room. I was thumbing…
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