From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V4 #184 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Thursday, July 15 2004 Volume 04 : Number 184 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Drumming [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 22:29:04 +1200 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Drumming This is a slightly curious tale of how you can't always quite believe your ears. Or maybe, how your brain insists on grouping things into patterns. (Okay, my ears, my brain. Yours is probably just as bad. Gestalt psychologists would be rapt). Y'all know that scene in Sin Trade when Xena first does the shaman thing in the cave, with that really hypnotic drumming in the background? Well, catchy though I found it, I could never remember the rhythm later, till one day i tried very hard (because it's surprisingly difficult) and managed to count the notes in it. And there were seven notes in it (which is an odd number for a rhythm - I mean odd=strange, not odd != divisible by 2). Exagerrating the stress in the rhythm it went Dah da da, Dah da da, DUM with a 3-note beat Dah da da Dah da da DUM Dah da da Dah da da DUM Dah da da Dah da da DUM Dah da da Dah da da DUM I could also just make out five more beats in the background filling in the gap between each phrase Dah da da Dah da da DUM di di di di di Dah da da Dah da da DUM di di di di di Dah da da Dah da da DUM di di di di di Dah da da Dah da da DUM This rhythm was also repeated at the start of Part 2 when Alti was conjuring up the spirits in her tent. Okay, so what?, I hear you say. Well, when I got my S4 DVD's a couple of weeks ago, I was getting nicely absorbed in Sin Trade, waiting for the drumming - and it was different! Equally hypnotic, but unmistakeably different from what I remembered! It was two drums, alternating, with the same six-note phrase (and no gaps at all between the two) da da dah da da DAH du du dum du du DUM da da dah da da DAH du du dum du du DUM da da dah da da DAH du du dum du du DUM...... Very strange. The Part 2 scene with Alti in her tent, however, was the old rhythm I remembered. I figured I must have superimposed this rhythm on my memory of the Xena-in-the-cave scene in Part 1. I'd have put this down to faulty memory but... this week we have staying with us, my wife's sister and her young son, who is an instant Xena fanatic. He has worked his way through 2/3 of my Xena tapes, most of them twice over!! He watches them all day and all evening. Last night I was watching Sin Trade with him (off my original recorded-off-TV tape) and to my astonishment, the drumming in the cave scene had reverted back to Dah da da Dah da da DUM di di di di di Dah da da Dah da da DUM ..... OK, so I know now what happened. There must be two channels of sound, and the two drums must be on different channels. On the DVD's, the two drums must be both coming through at the same volume. On my mono tape, however, one channel must be almost lost, so that only the last emphatic DAH of the six notes registers, followed by the six notes of the other drum at full volume. Hence, the seven-note rhythm. And the change in stress from the DAH da da rhythm to the da da DAH rhythm? That's just my brain 'adjusting' what I heard to suit the overall rhythm. Or so I assume. By now you all think I'm crazy, eh? Well, no, I'm perfectly sane (and I have the papers to prove it). I just have this rhythm going around in my head like a European express steam locomotive.... cr ... Da da dah da da DAH du du dum du du DUM da da dah..... ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V4 #184 **************************************