Amazement. Intrigue. Mystery. Whimsy.

[Image by Pamela Colman Smith - The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138928474]

Tarot-Rized: Elaborate Tropes of the Arcana

A tribute to Simon Maloy, my late brother-in-law who past away 5 years ago today (6/10/19) from colon cancer. May his tweets live on (he would've never called it X), https://twitter.com/simonmaloy

Drums by Jim Greif with help on percussion by Natalie López-Greif.

Recorded and mixed by Finley Martin at Sound Mind Studio, https://soundmindanddesign.com/.

Console Nation

This is the background track for the Star.

17.THE STAR.--Hope and bright prospects, Reversed: Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says: arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(tarot_card)

By Pamela Coleman Smith - a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114011116

Tarot-Rized: A Star is Scorned

This is the background track for the Lovers card.

6. THE LOVERS.—Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. Reversed: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lovers

By Pamela Colman Smith - una carta de 1909 escanéada por Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) para el dominio público, y recuperado de http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5714746

Tarot-Rized: Afficinado/Afligida, Lovers in the Sun

This is the background track for the Fool and the Devil cards.

The major arcana cards tell a story called the Fool's journey, beginning from The Fool and ending with The World. The Devil comes after the fourteenth major arcana card, Temperance. The Devil represents the Fool's involvement in economic materialism and complacency. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_(tarot_card)]

By Unknown author - Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=696683

Tarot-Rized: Judgement and "Teenage" Dirt Devil

This is the background track for the wheel of fortune card.

A common aspect to most interpretations of this card within a reading is to introduce an element of change in the querent's life, such change being in station, position or fortune: such as the rich becoming poor, or the poor becoming rich. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(tarot_card)]

By Pamela Coleman Smith - a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114011095

Tarot-Rized: Industrial Grade Cumbia to the Wheel of Fortune!

This is the background track for the Death card.

Death (XIII) is the 13th trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional tarot decks. It is used in tarot card games as well as in divination. The card typically depicts the Grim Reaper, and when used for divination is often interpreted as signifying major changes in a person's life.

By Pamela Coleman Smith - a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114011104

Tarot-Rized: Clearly Death Will Set Sail for the Moon!!

This is the background track for the High Priestess card.

According to A. E. Waite's 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the High Priestess card is associated with:

"Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge."

By Pamela Coleman Smith - a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114010983

Tarot-Rized: High Priestess, Fetishized Focus of Amorous Ardor

This is the background track for the Hierophant card.

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hierophant): According to A.E. Waite's 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Hierophant card carries several divinatory associations:

5. THE HIEROPHANT.--Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy, and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over kindness, weakness.

In Astrology, the Hierophant is associated with the feminine, fixed-earth sign of Taurus and its ruling planet, Venus.

Image Attribute: Pamela Coleman Smith - a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114010991

Tarot-Rized: Fill Your Cup with the Hierophant

This is the background track for the Tower card.

This card follows immediately after The Devil in all tarots that contain it, and is associated with sudden, disruptive revelation, and potentially destructive change.

By Jehan Vanderborre - aeclectic.net, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3888079

Tarot-Rized: the Swooning Excitement of a Toppling Tower

This is the background track for the World card.

According to A.E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the World card carries several divinatory associations [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(tarot_card)]:

21.THE WORLD—Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.

By Pamela Coleman Smith - a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114011125

Tarot-Rized: the Fugue of the World Voyager (Privileged Purviews)

The final piece for this series! This is the background track for the Empress/Isis-Urania card. Of all this cards, this has the most transgressions, homosexual cults, terrorism, autocracy ... pretty amazing!

PS I had to change the original title because it was setting off all sorts of triggers, go figure ...

In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus; and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by her to the elect. Most old attributions of this card are completely wrong on the symbolism—as, for example, its identification with the Word, Divine Nature, the Triad, and so forth. [Wikipedia, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pictorial_Key_to_the_Tarot#III._The_Empress]

By Pamela Colman Smith - The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138928470

Tarot-Rized: The Uranian influence on Isis by the Cubic Stone

Tarot-Rized: The Uranian influence on the Cubic Stone

The Epilogue of the Tarot-Rized series. Hope you enjoyed it!

This is the 6 of Cups card: In divinatory, esoteric and occult tarot, the Minor Arcana are believed to represent relatively mundane features of life. The court cards represent the people whom one meets. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Arcana]

By Pamela Colman Smith - This image scanned by Holly Voley, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113970916

Tarot-Rized: Epilogue

This is the first realized track of the "Catch It If You Can" series which began as the background music for a crankie presentation (https://www.thecrankiefactory.com/) by David Greenfield-Boyce, (https://www.facebook.com/puppethour) at the Black Cherry Puppet Theater (https://blackcherrypuppettheater.weebly.com/) on March 17, 2024. His presentation was based on a work by Annie Dillard, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrim_at_Tinker_Creek). Having said all this, this project -- and this track -- have veered widely from the original execution.

Catch It If You Can

Lo-Fi Try

Rockambo is a bassist from Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC.

Since the pandemic, he's been writing compositions using MIDI instrumentation (and struggling with latency issues on slow computers). He takes equal parts inspiration from Palladium-era Latin jazz (https://www.facebook.com/groups/LFCE893/), vintage 70s jazz-funk (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv8l4QR862COAotwH_cw9wQ), 00s electronica (https://somafm.com/spacestation/), contemporary lo-fi (https://open.spotify.com/album/2j4Mjok0KmnQ2ENfWIpUKf?si=MuUDlZW9TAuziw5LLmFjvg), and some ethnic music from the countries where he's lived (https://blog.scuolaleonardo.com/2023/04/25/bella-ciao-one-of-the-most-famous-italian-songs-in-the-world-from-the-resistance-to-money-heist/).

Since he can't find his way around a sequencer, he breaks away from repetitive beat loop patterns and seeks to create more organic pieces. Having said that, he only knows how to use a few DAW platforms which are all primarily loop-based ... it's complicated.

All recordings are original compositions recorded using SoundTrap, (http://www.soundtrap.com), and Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org). More recently, he's been mastering tracks in Ableton Live Lite (https://www.ableton.com/en/products/live-lite/) and learning how to use MPC Beats (https://www.akaipro.com/mpc-beats) ... he bought some MIDI controllers ... There are no pre-recorded loops. If you are getting into composition, you should grab this (https://www.asio4all.org/).

MIDI is currently being played through an Alesis Vortex Wireless 2 keytar and with a regular ASDF keyboard and a mouse. Rad.

The mixes are low, so turn them up!

Jim Greif says his biggest influence is the Doogie Houser theme song by Mike Post (https://youtu.be/zE4M3hPut7E). 

Rockambo is fluent in neurodiversity and his music is neurodivergent-friendly.

All the appropriate influences are noted where possible. Contact him before using or distributing this material.

Some music-related books worth checking out:
"Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer" by Frank Trocco, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37535.Analog_Days
"How Music Works" by David Byrne, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13235689-how-music-works
"Just Kids" by Patti Smith, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341879.Just_Kids
"This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession"
by Daniel J. Levitin, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/141565.This_Is_Your_Brain_on_Music
"Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk"
by John Doe, Tom DeSavia
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898106-under-the-big-black-sun

Rockambo

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