In general, a work in a visual medium - a painting, a comic book or a film - supplies ALL or most of the inputs. A book supplies only some of the inputs and we, the readers, supply the rest.
Here's the thing: a good reader supplies good inputs and an average reader supplies average inputs. This is why children are described as "imaginative readers". They "live" in the story-world whereas we adults skim through it.
So even if it's a Harlequin novel, you can make it as vivid as you'd like. But that effort will be substantially more than watching even a good film adaptation of a Harlequin novel.
I'm a little conflicted about the authorship of "The Word". The chord progression is very Paul and the chorus is very John.
> In the first three lines "word" is by far the most stressed note, and they are all the SAME note. In the last line the stress is on "heard", which rhymes, and is again the same note.
That's how it's supposed to work. The downbeat (or the accent) is on "word" in each line and in the last line the lyric changes to "heard" instead of "word.
So I'm neither expecting syncopation here nor am I noticing anything unusual there.
> So I'm neither expecting syncopation here nor am I noticing anything unusual there.
I'm not either, but that doesn't have anything to do with the point. The point is that their classification model has Lennon staying on the same note, and that happens with "The Word" if you give the importance to the highly stressed note (which, as you point out, is on the downbeat). But, partly because the stressed notes are surrounded by other notes, they are assigning the melody to McCartney.
> Too much Lennon is whiny, and too much McCartney is syrupy and cheesy.
That's an overly simplistic - and I'd say wrong - characterization.
On the early albums leading up to Rubber Soul, Lennon handles a larger share of lead vocal duties. He sings ballads ("I'll be back", "Anna"), rockers ("A hard day's night", "Twist and shout") and mid-tempo songs that fall somewhere between rockers and ballads (like "you can't do that").
When he does start sharing vocal duties with Paul on Rubber Soul, there's not a single "whiny" Lennon song. There's "Norwegian Wood" and "In my life" (not to mention fillers like "Run for your life") which are written, sung and arranged in anything but a "whiny" style.
Don't get me wrong, many of Lennon's tunes are fantastic. I'm kind of exaggerating the differences to illustrate a point. Although "Norwegian Wood" is indeed not "whiny", if you listen to it together with only other Lennon tunes, it's altogether too weighty. Mixing weightiness with levity of "sun-shiny" tunes (mostly Paul) makes for better entertainment in my opinion. The two's differences make a perfect yin-yang balance, which is part of their formula for success. Too much yin and too much yang sour things. (Also, I'm kind of ignoring their early years when they did mostly cover tunes.)
$4.7B in iPad sales. That's 4.7 BILLION. At nearly 10% of their revenues, the going-going-gone tablet category still has some legs. Who would have thunk?
/edited the numbers. I had mixed up the Mac and iPad revenue figures.
iPad sales should go through the roof later in this year.
The acquisition of Texture and the upcoming refresh with iPhone X style design should drive a lot of of users to look at iPads as a magazine replacement. Especially if it comes free as part of your existing Apple Music subscription.
From the article, it doesn't seem that unusual: Dr. Cicoria didn't suddenly become an artist, it still took him a bit to get there. Specifically, the "no previous training" from the title simply doesn't apply.
The sudden part was gaining interest and passion in music - and it can be linked to him being struck by lightning.
As for the musical process - hearing music in his head, desire to listen and play, hearing his own music when starting to play other pieces - that's not at all unique. I can't vouch for everyone, but as a musicmaker, I can say that this is how a lot of people make music.
I think it's not that much unlike the flow state in coding, where one wakes up with the problem already loaded in mind, has ideas about structures and algorithms in the shower, and then figures out how to code it all during the day. Writing down the notes is - literally - coding music.
I think that if you can get a song stuck in your head, you also have this potential to hear new music in your head, and thus to make it. It just can get easily drown in all the other noise that life generates. Some people just need a shake to turn the other noise down.
Some anecdata based on my travels in the subcontinent in the past few years:
1. While younger consumers know about Apple (and know that it is a "superior" brand), the native Apple ecosystem has little meaning for Indian consumers. They are not on iTunes or iMessages or FaceTime. They don't have a cultural relationship with a Mac (or an iPod).
2. Google/Android got there first (2008). Xiaomi, Samsung have benefited from it.
3. The network (and its accompanying data plan) is the differentiator, not the hardware. Look how Reliance Jio exploded.
4. The wealthy/upwardly mobile love their iPhones.
5. There's a HUGE grey market for phones in India. There's also a big repair market. Both these factors probably affect new handset sales?
As a Indian who owned the first iPhone along with a Macbook and has been using a iPhone 6S with MBP for last 2 years I have a few points to add..
1. Its difficult for the average phone user to be convinced to spend money on a device that would cost considerably less if purchased outside the country.
For example, someone was telling me (I haven't personally validated) that its cheaper to take a flight to Bangkok, Thailand and pickup a Macbook Pro 15' 2018 and get it back than buy it in a local store.
The same thing holds true for iPhones as well. A lot of people get phones from friends / family traveling to other countries as its cheaper to buy there.
2. Android phones provide a lot of options at a variety of price points. The choice is ultimately the reason most people go the Android route. In case of Apple, only the iPhone SE is priced in a reasonable way (as the article points).
3. You don't get the same experience buying a iPhone as other countries as Apple does not have flagship Apple stores. The sales happen through re-sellers. That could be a factor as well.
4. Broadly expanding to other Apple products, the clear lack of choice puts people off. For example, I really want to buy the Macbook 12' but with a upgraded 16 GB RAM. But that option is not available on the online store or with the reseller.
Not making a generalization but I know many many guys who are rich and bought iPhone but they just disliked and went back to android for one basic reason - they love the android UI and ecosystem more.
For example, one guy said he ditched iphone because he can't use truecaller on it. Another one just didn't like the UI. Yet another one is tired of its rather closed ecosystem.
> 5. There's a HUGE grey market for phones in India.
I don't think this it true anymore. Brand name Android flagships are available for $150-$200. On the lower end, Jio along with data plan for one year costs $50. There is no price point for Grey market anymore.
I should correct my earlier statement: there appears to be a huge "used-phone" market in India. Purely my observation that there seemed to be a lot more older phones in circulation (both Android and Apple).
Nope. Not anymore. It was in early days of iPhone coming to India. Now users just go for a new iPhone or an excellent Android phone usually at a much lower price.
