John Statz | Distance
I’ve been listening to this album for the last few days. I had a little trouble picking out a track to share, so I just went with the first one.
Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
Related to stuff we’re talking about.
Phonograms
Patrick Feaster studies the culture of early phonography (the recording and reproduction of sound) and blogs at Phonozoic, where I’ve been hanging out for the past hour or so. At the 2011 conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Feaster shared “Phonogram Images on Paper: 1250-1950.” You can listen to his presentation and download slides here. Just scroll down a little ways and you’ll find the links.
(via Excavated Shellac)
from the archives: August 25, 2009
Driftless: Stories from Iowa By Danny Wilcox Frazier:
Life in Iowa can be punishing. Many Iowans expend their lives sweating over soil and spilling the blood of livestock; they endure the hardships associated with a life inextricably bound to the ups and downs of nature. Today, those challenges and a shift in our nation’s economy have pushed the youth of rural communities to migrate to the metropolises of America. Those left in the wake of this out-migration continue their lives, seemingly unchanged from the generations that preceded them, and entombed in obscurity.
iOS 5 Assistant
An overview of potential features in Assistant, a voice controlled personal management system available in the next version of the iPhone software:
The system will actually speak back and forth with the user to gain the most information in order to provide the best results. The user essentially can hold a conversation with their iPhone like it is another human being. For example, if a user is making a meeting with me, they will say “setup meeting with Mark” and the first “bubble” of the conversation thread will say that. After that, the system will speak back: “which e-mail address should Mark be notified at, work or personal?” This question will both be spoken out loud by the iPhone Assistant and shown as a new “bubble” in the conversation thread. The user will then respond with the email address they want to notify me at, and the appointment will be made.
The speculation is this feature will only work with the new iPhones, and not the iPhone 4 or 3GS, because of processor and RAM requirements.
Great Big Saturnine Storm
At its most intense, the storm generated more than 10 lightning flashes per second. Even with millisecond resolution, the spacecraft’s radio and plasma wave instrument had difficulty separating individual signals during the most intense period. Scientists created a sound file from data obtained . . . at a slightly lower intensity period.
If you listen vary carefully to the audio file, you can hear Sun Ra.
Marcella Riordan reads the Molly Bloom soliloquy
In honor of Bloomsday yesterday Tim Carmody pointed to this beautiful reading of the Molly Bloom soliloquy at the end of Joyce’s Ulysses.
Josh Rothman says:
In my opinion, the best audio recording of Molly’s soliloquy appears in the Naxos audiobook of the novel; it’s read perfectly by the Irish actress Marcella Riordan. As it happens, you can listen to the last few minutes of her performance on YouTube. Molly thinks about nature and God, recalls her childhood in Gibralter (she’s half Spanish), and relives the moment she accepted her husband’s proposal of marriage.
Joyce McKinney calls Pete Ashton
In honor of the impending release of Errol Morris’s Tabloid, I give you Joyce McKinney’s call to Pete Ashton.
Update: clusterflock’s visit from Joyce.
Gayngs – Last Prom on Earth
In honor of the rapture, one of my favourite songs of the past year:
Stick around for the last two minutes. More about Gayngs here.
I can’t stop playing with it
Otomata lets you set a few variables, press play, and listen to the beautiful (sometimes) sounds that come out. It’s minimalist composition for the musically challenged.
If you make a composition you like, you can save it as a link. Here are a few I made that I like.
Also, I found a way to record them through the system audio on my Mac.
(via kottke)
David Guthartz: Hello, Mr. Giuliani, we speak again.
SC reminded us in comments:
I had a powerful Republican moment watching those clips. I couldn’t help but think of Guiliani’s infamous radio rant about ferret owners….
From the transcript:
There is something really, really, very sad about you. You need help. You need somebody to help you. I know you feel insulted by that, but I’m being honest with you. This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness.
The Talk
This is mostly for Cindy, but it’s for everyone too. Julia Sweeney’s 8 year old daughter started asking questions about sex, and Sweeney soon found herself answering endless questions. Long but good, via the Hairpin.
So
Remember when Phil posted a weird rap battle video, and then I said it was in response to this guy who may or may not have been inspired by the first guy’s first video about tea, which was even more awesome?
Well, some guy at a blog I’ve never heard of wrote an article about them.
Thom Yorke Does Surprise DJ Set in L.A.
Via Pitchfork
You are listening to Los Angeles
Okay. My 24/7 soundtrack. Ambient music and live LAPD police radio.
(Thank you, Mr. Ledgerwood.)
Where’s Timmy?
Super Flush Toilet Can Swallow Golf Balls
During testing, the team flushes objects with a range of consistencies, including napkins, sponges, miso paste, polyballs, saw dust and corn.
And with competition from other companies, American Standard has no problem demonstrating the punch of its products, even on smart phones.
Fifty-six chicken nuggets? No problem for these crappers. Water wigglers? You bet.
The Sound of Awkward: Album Covers of Regret
For Cindy.
Yes and Starship Trooper
From the TRIPLE album Yessongs! 1973 and live.
I know I won’t win any friends, but, what the fuck!
I looked for the Prog Rock category, but, couldn’t find it!
foley artist, Gary Hecker
This clip comes across a little Christopher Guest, but shows foley artist Gary Hecker creating the sounds that make you think you hear what you see when you watch a movie.
Gary Hecker is a veteran foley artist who uses a myriad of objects to create organic sounds in sync with what unfolds on the screen. Thousands of sounds are layered together in a single scene. The goal, according to King, is to underline the emotion of a scene, be it terror, suspense or sorrow.
A few more videos at the link.
Listen to Our Lucy
Monday, January 17, 1:00 pm EST on WFMU. Our Lucy — Lucy Foley, together with her band, will perform live in the WFMU studio — and chat with program host Irene Trudel.
Update: You can also watch a short video (made at Wombat Recording) featuring Lucy Foley on vocals and Ross Bonadonna on guitar.
Saharan Cell Phone Mixtape
Music from Saharan cell phones is a compilation of music shared between cell phone owners in Mali.
Father Christmas fucked my pussy (Christmas pussy song)
(thanks, Aaron)
Sir Wilfred Thesiger’s photographs of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
Sir Wilfred Thesiger took nearly 40,000 photographs during his eight decades of travels throughout Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Now, to mark 100 years since his birth, Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum is displaying some of his most striking images.
The BBC has an audio slideshow of Thesiger’s work. The photo above is of a Masai warrior wearing the mane of a lion he had speared.
Brooke Fraser, Something in the Water
I can’t explain, this made me inexplicably happy tonight.
GyroSynth for iPhone 4
GyroSynth makes use of the gyroscope to measure true roll, pitch, and yaw and translates them to sound parameters like pitch, volume, modulation or filter cutoff. Thanks to phenomenal accuracy (2000 degrees), you can play melodies perfectly in tune.
I downloaded it last night and whilst testing it Jan called out from bed to ask me if the cat was being sick.
