This one is written for the Promotions team's COSMOGRAMMA typography. COSMOGRAMMA is the name of the latest album by Flying Lotus who Josh adores. Personally I think it sounds like when the three year old in the downstairs flat breaks into the pots and pans cupboard while the babysitter is in the bedroom with her boyfriend, ie really annoying noises.
Anyway here's my piece for their piece.
Whenever I find myself in a bind I ask myself what would Maria do? (I refer of course to that wondrous beast of a phenomenon that is Maria Von Trapp – the completely lovable antagonist from my number one favourite film of all time, The Sound of Music.) The answer to the aforementioned question is naturally always: the right damn thing.
So, on that willowy windswept mountain how did Madame choose (very successfully) to teach her seven young charges to carry a tune? Here’s a hint: “Let’s start from the very beginning… a very good place to start… when you read you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with DO RE MI!” You guessed it… she SANG!
Sadly in modern Aussie classrooms my (okay Maria’s) rather progressive idea is shot down as complete bovine excrement which is quite unfortunate when the status quo is examined. In our so-called ‘modern’ world students are still using the same system dinosaurs used way back even before the Whopper was invented! And that system is of course T.E.X.T (time-consuming, exacerbating, Xeroxed trash) books.
Text based learning is fine if you harbour a billion extra blood vessels running through THAT side of the brain but spare an exam mark for us creative folk! We ain’t wired like you funny accountant people and this renders us disadvantaged in the classroom. We need an alternate option and I reckon music is the answer. Try and follow me here ‘K?
Let’s use COSMOGRAMMA as a sample. Even just a half hearted listen (and lemme tell with this FlyLo ain’t no half nuthin’ coz boy commands complete ‘tensh yo) leaves you with lessons in history (Alice Coltrane and Jazz), religion (world religion and spirituality via the cosmos), music (how to count beats real easy) and pop culture (an A-Z of Nintendo generational hits) – and that’s just the bare basics.
To compliment the vocal lesson we add some visuals to pump up a rounded day of learning. For example the sample shown teaches us about the first ever printing block: a curled up hand, dipped in dye and pressed down to form the mark we now know as paisley. YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT? Hesitate not class-dunce! Ditch the T.E.X.T books and sign up for my S.O.B, School of Beats, coz we are outta the dark ages and seriously off the book!
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