on audiokayness: the sonic bog deepens

Or widens or something . . .

tip of the iceberg--more titles on audiokayness, even more on Twango

three on the IMDb

My friend Toshi just told me he's on the Internet Movie Database. He's working with Ray Kurzweil on his film, Singularity Is Near. Looking forward to seeing that.

With my friend Jim, that makes two people I know on the IMDb.

Nope, Bob G. makes three . . .

Godspeed, y'all.

to all the blogs I've loved before . . .

Before I say Happy Holidays and enter winter torpor, I thought I'd mention some cool blogs old & new.

Sickmalls (aka That Mall's Sick And That Store's Dead!) has kept an eagle eye on the fading malls and retail spaces of Hampton Roads Virginia. Lately, old Ward's TV ads and big wayward KFC buckets have been the loss leaders. Oh, that and the new Stuckey's I couldn't believe existed.

Music Thing is too darn famous (among music geeks) to mention--'cept to say I mention it all the time.

BibliOdyssey, with its many cool images of book art and trippy bits of long ago arcana, is a wonder to behold.

ConcreteBeat posts videos of musicians & performers in the streets and subway of New York City.

The Boat Lullabies (the blog arm of the very cool found photo world of Square America) is a new acquaintance made through yet another neat blog, PLC LinkDump.

PLC also navigated this beflanneled old hick traveler to the planet FABULON (p'haps in a glamorous galaxy near the Mitzi Gaynor nebula, or somewhere between Pluto and Uranus). Indeed, I arrived just in time for a homage to Will Geer and Ellen Corby (patriarch & matriarch of The Waltons and beyond).

Likewise cascading to likes of Awesome Tapes of Africa and the Brazilian music at Forro em Vinil.

At PLC there's a great Bollywood spy caper/dance number complete with Santa.

Anyway, that should be enough to entertain (or induce vertigo) until I get out of suspended animation.

If not, there's always my wife's gnarly art blog. Or if boredom's truly abiding, audiokayness should scare that (or you) away. Or go to uberkayness to watch ice melt.

Holiday warmth and a fine '08 to all . . .

the legacies of Dan and Karlheinz

My wife found this great testimonial about singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg, who recently passed away. Kudos to the writer, Don Hammontree of the New Bedford Standard-Times.

Recently, Music Thing made a call out to its readers to write about the legacy of avant-garde classical composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Last I checked, there were 17 comments.

Being something of a classic rock android/folk rock wuss, I heard Dan Fogelberg's recording of "Part of the Plan" and got Souvenirs and his two albums after that. Ultimately, due to the musical mutant I later became, and p'haps because of a sea change in Dan's work ("Longer" and that period), I left off after his record with Tim Weisberg.

All the same, I'd like to think of Dan & Karlheinz as both in their lives and now in their deaths giving us a wide latitude of expression:

Permission to sing sweetly.

And permission not to . . .

Juan Matos Capote on free103point9

As I promised, here's video of Juan Matos Capote performing on DJ Mangoon's online radio show on free103point9. And as in the Thick Wisps video, he's armed with a circuit bent Omnichord, a DIY Pink Oscillator and sundry effects pedals.




Along with his work in Thick Wisps, Juan put out The Subway Aural Recordings, a CD of music created from field recordings made in the NYC subway. He's studied with circuit bender Reed Ghazala and composer Pauline Oliveros. And yep, he's a visual artist, too.




It's interesting, the subdued color in these videos. Except for a salmon colored stomp box off to the right, it looks like film noir.

Or maybe that's just because of the dark hat he's wearing in first two videos.

Thick Wisps on All Hallows' Eve

Here's a video snippet of the live online radio show Thick Wisps played this past Halloween (courtesy therealmangoon).

As you can see Thick Wisps have their black robes on and electric candles lit to raise some spooky sonic emanations.

Juan Matos Capote (on the left) has at his command a circuit bent Omnichord (remember Jolene on hers?) and his homebrew Pink Oscillator.

Giancarlo Bracchi (to the right) has what looks like a Moog/Big Briar Etherwave Theremin and numerous cool pedals & such.

Since then, Juan Matos Capote has played on DJ Mangoon's show on free103point9 online radio. Hopefully, some video from that will be coming up soon.

what kind of fool am I?

Before you answer that, check out The World Of Kane's entry on Anthony Newley, the RCA years.

a woman's life in pictures

PCL LinkDump just posted about a cool entry at The Boat Lullabies called The Way of All Flesh.

The entry's a series of photos that follows a woman from her early girlhood in the mid 1930s to about 1978. The pictures were found in cosmetics case bought at a flea market. The identity of the woman is unknown.

About as interesting as the photos are the many comments that range from something like "these pictures are fake/it's not the same woman" to "this woman's hot/beautiful" to "wow, this is so cool" to "what are a stranger's photos doing online?".

FWIW, I'm of the she's beautiful/this is cool camp. Go see for yourself . . .

And, indeed, more pics crop up later on . . .

dang ol' Hurray for Valleydale commercial!!!

Some folks want to save the world or spend a lost weekend in Vegas.

Me, I've been wanting to see the Hurray for Valleydale commercial. And now, thanks to AtomicShows and YouTube, I can . . .

With this, the Wild, Wild World of Animals credits and Shakey's Pizza ad online, I'd better find a new ambition or put my affairs in order.

There's much ado about being a Virginian (well, back in Virginia at least). When I hear that music, watch those singing, marching cartoon pigs and see that outline of my home state on the Valleydale ham package, I finally understand what the fuss is all about.

All hail it's Valleydale!

UPDATE:

Valleydale is still in business and has its own archive of TV ads.

The YouTube posting above is the best version of the classic ad most folks remember. But I like the slightly updated, shortened version you'll find at the Valleydale site. Click on the second thumbnail in the top row, the B&W image of the kinda mod looking family, to see it.

Aunt Mimi video hits the 500 mark

Acoustic duo Aunt Mimi have been staying busy playing out. They just had a gig last Thursday at the Harvest Cafe in Hudson MA.

So it's not too surprising their front yard video has hit 500 viewings.

If you want to hear them live, their website is a good place to check for their next show.

Aunt Mimi will be taking a holiday break, but Derm Whitaker (fellow on the left) is gigging with True West this coming weekend.

Dutch needle drop on Carl Douglas

"What is this shi . . .": Carl Douglas having fun on Dutch TV.

I vote this video as the one most likely to be restaged a hundred years hence by historical reenactors.

Were I around for that future day, I'd play the white jacketed host with the pink champale.

Found on PLC LinkDump, posted by ripspique.

on uberkayness--bright lights return

tripping the Xmas lights fantastic--let's do the time-lapse again

The World Of Kane on Jimmy Webb

Checking out various blogs recommended by Google Reader, I found this cool entry on songwriter Jimmy Webb on The World Of Kane.

I see also an entry on the influential 5th Dimension I'll have to check out.

Indeed, the 5th Dimension's version of Webb's "Up, Up and Away" may be the first song I consciously heard playing in my head after it was finished playing (on my dad's 8-Track, no less). Unused to this sort of aural "afterimage", I thought I was going nuts.

on uberkayness--double arcana

cassette arcana--a vaguely Warholian 15 minutes to Tape It Like It Is
(related audiokayness)

childhood arcana--when Dick Dastardly and the Banana Splits roamed the earth

better to have loved & blogged . . .

I forget which way back relative of mine my mom said "died laughing at the Fat Lady".

But given my current addiction to The Dumpster, I figure my number's about up and a spot's awaiting me in Schadenfreude Hell*.

I can't help reading the teen breakup postings there. And I can't help but laugh at, well, some of them.

I don't know jack or jill about generative art. The Generator.x blog led me hence.

Also to the equally cool We Feel Fine, where a broad spectrum of "I feel . . " & "I am feeling . ." statements are culled from blogs and arranged in various categories and graphical representations.

I really like both of these iterations of online art.

Tho' I hope The Dumpster will understand: I just wanna be friends . . .

---

[*Ungainly & Ineffectual Sidebar Apologia: As these Dumpster postings are gathered from 2005, I figure these lovelorn have since moved from romantic ruination on to brighter days.

Indeed, the posts that make me laugh so hard are the ones that go something like "my girlfriend dumped me but I was ready to dump her . . . almost finished that stupid English paper". One gets the (p'haps false) impression the moving on took all of 4 seconds.

And all the posts are so spiced with text message abbreviations (omfg! ttyl) and warmed-over gangsta slang as to make my informal prose seem like that of a very tweedy Oxford don circa 1874.

All the same, my time in Hell's assured.]

God Only Knows, Multiple SIDosis on UkeTube

Surveying the virtual lair of the very cool Ask A Ninja, I found among the favorites this fun, breezy video of God Only Knows on ukulele posted by jaaaaaaa.

Kind of a laidback Multiple SIDosis . . .


Courtesy phunnycar.

Cool article about Sid "Multiple SIDosis" Laverents.

Wild, Wild World of Animals

love2register totally rocks for posting these clips of Wild, Wild World of Animals.

The intro theme I hadn't heard since I was kid back in the 1970s watching this show on Saturday afternoons. Still the music stuck with me long enough to inspire this homage two decades later.

I had forgotten about the end credit music--very cool also (many thanks again to love2register).

Ralph Steiner rocks the water

Ralph Steiner could take a damn picture.

Even when it meant taking 24 per second.

In 1929 he shot an amazing short film called H2O. The video embedded above, handy as it is (thanks to drzewko), is but a coarse approximation of the film.

Good copies can be found in the Unseen Cinema DVD set [which also includes the amazing Glen Falls Sequence by Douglass Crockwell & works by the aforementioned Mary Ellen Bute] and in Kino Video's Avant-Garde DVD set.

I dunno if there was any originally intended music to accompany H2O, but each of the three versions I've seen thus far is set to a different piece of music.

And indeed there's two vids of live musicians having a go: one featuring the band Tangleweed (courtesy singalonginesperanto) and another with composer Philip Glass on piano (courtesy rollindust).

In 1978 Steiner put out a book, A Point of View, that features a short (and funny as hell) autobiography as well as an overview of his still photographs. Definitely worth seeking out in your local library.

Cashmere Jungle Lords video passes 600 mark

This video of the Cashmere Jungle Lords has now been seen more than 600 times. For one of my videos, that's a lot.

But there are other CJL videos:

--like this one of them playing Los Blob (courtesy bunnyholmes)

--a video of their song Slender Bed (and the Los Blob vid again) at their MySpace video channel

--and one of three vids posted of their recent show at Legend Brewery Company (courtesy Suramz)

Have a swamp surfin' good time . . .

audiokayness by title

Along the lines of rearranging folding chairs on the deck of the Titanic, I've indexed all the K music I've posted to audiokayness by title.

A through H

I through Q

R through Z

Perhaps helpful if there's something of mine you specifically want to hear or you wish to browse by title.

Anything you don't see so far may yet be posted.

ice on fur & other icons

I was online checking out the art in this year's icons + altars show held at the New Art Center in Newton MA.

My wife is one of the participating artists. Along with her entry, there's neat stuff a plenty . . .

In last year's show, I recall a playfully surreal construction box that featured a polar bear in the Arctic. If I'm not mistaken, this work is a less pictorial approach by the same artist.

Here's a collage using the security printing, window shapes and other forms found in envelopes.

And an oil of (I think) Christmas caroler candles.

It's a cool show with a squid jar and a cat princess and then some. I hope to get to see it soon. And hope you have a chance to do the same.

Archive of American Television

After having spent entirely too many hours watching TV, I can now spend even more hours watching TV about TV . . .

The Emmys Foundation has posted on Google Video half-hour segments of at-length interviews with the likes of Earl Hamner.

Not a big fan of The Waltons? How 'bout Jonathan Winters?

Or James L. Brooks?

I haven't gotten around to the Brooks interview (yet) and have only seen enough of the Earl Hamner to know it looks interesting. But I watched most of the Jonathan Winters in one sitting--the guy's a genius.

the horror that is a Shakey's Pizza ad

I was recounting to some young person polite enough to listen how truly bizarre the TV ads for Shakey's Pizza were.

So much so I couldn't believe my own memories of these ads till I saw this one . . .

Perhaps I was too tame in my description.

Many thanks to WookieCookie for posting this.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Digging deep for old Soul: Go here and you can read how this recent video was shot on old TV cameras and such.




Same folks playing live in France. All courtesy the good folks at DaptoneRecords.

I love to turn y'all on . . .

Tho' I'm a bigger fan of Vic Mizzy than I am of the Beatles, this video made my damn day.

In case you haven't pressed play yet: It's called A Day in the Life of Green Acres and features the lyrics of Green Acres sung to the tune of A Day in the Life.

Thank yous & felicitations go to rockdontrun who mished this mash together.

Might also wanna check out rock's vid of Led Zep as portrayed by the Cattanooga Cats. Or Brian Setzer stepping in behind Jet Screamer on the Jetsons.

dang that's a big chicken . . .

Above is but one of many video homages to the Big Chicken of Marietta, GA (courtesy this gentleman).

Me, I love the big chicken. And I'm indeed inclined to like any big critter statuary.

take this, muskrat love . . .

Whoa, the Captain and Tennille join forces with Gong Show contestants?

Sure, the Hudson Brothers, Shields & Yarnell . . anything's possible where Optiganally Yours is concerned. It's their video, "Mr. Wilson", posted by Mr. optigan.com himself, peahix.

You'll also find on his YouTube page many crazy vids of an OY live show in Tokyo.

If that's not cool enough for you, check out this one of the Wurlitzer SideMan tube rhythm machine (again courtesy Mr. Hix):

more Andy Partridge/XTC

No embedded videos, but YouTube links aplenty . . .

Andy P is a MTV VJ for a day or two . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v46iZ-9ugMg

King For A Day vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=depsFULhqV8

Senses Working OT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0invUXXsRAQ

Dis iz PHaP (ummm, This Is Pop):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLSkC4N1BIc

Knee On ShufL (Neon Shuffle):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEftTzuxVGo

R U Receiving Me? (well, Are You . . .):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApvaQ0uGTw

Thanks to the likes of 23Daves, ZonkOut, and familycat.

Andy Partridge talks about playing guitar

Thanks to YouTube being creaky & not showing its videos, I had to embed the above interview with Andy Partridge of XTC so I could watch it.

Having got that far, figured may as well post it here . . .

Thanks to champangeorslimfast for uploading it and to my wife for finding it.

audiokayness--music's primordial ooze

Actually intended as a blog for any sound I've recorded, audiokayness thus far delves into my musical past.

Ultimately, I hope to upload something like 30 minutes stretches of the James River lapping on the shore. Field recordings and such.

Three minute pop songs and vague resemblances thereof will have to do for now.

If you want to go straight to the source, you can try my Twango channel.

get avant-scary with Thick Wisps

Tonight from 7 to 10 PM Eastern time, the online radio station free103point9 is presenting a live Halloween broadcast featuring Thick Wisps.

To tune in, go here:

http://www.free103point9.org/onlineradio/

And click the link to launch the online radio player.

Cashmere Jungle Lords video hits 500 mark

500 viewings, that is.

Which, for me, is a pretty high number.

the Drumatics so-o-o-o rock

Another cool group of performers on ConcreteBeat--check 'em out on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gx2PztdNB0

Or go see 'em at ConcreteBeat.

Museum of Russian Icon, Clinton MA

http://www.russianiconmuseum.org/

My wife & I got to go here the other day. Cool museum full of, well, Russian icons like this and this.

free Baby Opaque

For those of you who knew the C'ville based band back in the mid 1980s, that's all I have to say.

Go here for MP3s of their music:

http://www.babyopaque.com/

more Mary Ellen Bute, Norman Mc Laren films

Above is Spook Sport, a Mary Ellen Bute movie done with Norman McLaren. Posted on YouTube by autochromex. Good for Halloween.

Below is part one of McLaren's extraordinary Pas de Deux. Posted by superchat9000.



Link to part two of "Pas de Deux".


Another Mc Laren, A Phantasy (posted by ypsis):



And there's yet more McLaren to be found, like Begone Dull Care, Neighbours and Synchromy.

recently on uberkayness--Stuckey's etc.

formerly known as Stuckey's, pt. 2--what used to be the Stuckey's in Thornburg VA off I-95

formerly known as Stuckey's, pt. 1--what used to be the Stuckey's in Toano VA near I-64

on & off the five mile loop--scenes from Jamestown Island and the James River

north on the Jamestown Ferry--pictures on and of the ferry

heading south on the Jamestown Ferry--brief video of the river crossing

Mary Ellen Bute, John Whitney, Harry Smith: Abstract Films

Reading Albert Glinsky's book on inventor Leon Theremin, I saw mention of a filmmaker I'd never heard of, Mary Ellen Bute. I found a couple of her works posted on YouTube by AnimArchiv.


Rhythm In Light:




and Tarantella:




Looking around for Bute, I came across John Whitney's computer graphics work, Arabesque (courtesy postingoldtapes):




And some work of Harry Smith (courtesy donjuanauxenfers):



For those of you wondering: yep, it's the same Harry Smith who helped kickstart the folk music revival in the mid 20th century with his LP compilation of old 78s, Anthology of American Folk Music.

hurdy gurdy player on Concrete Beat

The cool NYC street performance blog Concrete Beat has performance & interview footage of a hurdy gurdyist, Melissa the Loud. Very cool music and the interview includes a peek inside the hurdy gurdy's mechanism.

C'ville driveby--Nobody Home

Thanks to my brother's driving through Charlottesville, I got to play ghost for an afternoon and haunt some old locales with a digital camera.

Below is my driveby pic of what was once the TKE fraternity house.



In its basement, I saw & heard many more bands than I can reliably recall. Local bands like The Next of Kin, Continental Drift, Rude Buddha and (I think) Bad Brains from D.C.

And sometime later, a band I was in, Nobody Home, played its first show in that basement. Indeed about a year later, I think my friend Dale and I played what might've been NH's last C'ville gig (of sorts) in the living room of TKE.

For a while there, Nobody Home used an office space to practice in. Below, the low building to the right was formerly a convenience store near that space. Necessary snacks were procured there before practice.



Here's the building in the photo below. Go thru the right hand door & up the stairs to the second floor. There our space would be, behind the two windows in the upper left hand corner.



Yep, those two windows . . .



And around the corner, I think the space was four of these side windows in length.



It was an office space with wall-to-wall utility carpet, faux wood paneled walls and drop ceiling. But we were there in the evening after the other offices (and our day jobs) were done. Our only nighttime neighbor was a Karate studio down the hall.



The C&O Restaurant may be the only other place standing where Nobody Home (or any number of far better known bands) played in C'ville in mid-1980s.



I guess while the restaurant is still doing well, the sideline of booking live music is long over with.



Just as it was at TKE, before Nobody Home ever played the C&O, I saw more bands there than I can remember. This would include: The Next of Kin's famous rendition of "Hawaii Five-0"; former UVA music faculty George Starks on saxophone; an all-woman metal band called Black Sabbath's Wives (decades before The Osbournes), Martin Atkins, Alex Chilton and others that may yet jog my memory.



I was glad to see the C&O still standing. I had moved away 21 years ago & probably hadn't been near this town in well over 15.



Unlike Trax or the Mineshaft, other bars where other bands (and sometimes NH) had played, the C&O was here to make that past not quite so remote.



And I remember what a friend Jim (who worked at the C&O once upon a time) once said way back then about everyone wanting to be in a band. It was as if he were positing that, in some corner of a collective imagination, so many were converging on the same piece of real estate: a bohemian Levittown full of bands and bars to play in, tour vans loading for the next show down the road.

on uberkayness--ruins of old Smithfield

Pics of the buildings formerly known as Little's Supermarket and Angelo's Restaurant.

on uberkayness--turkeys go roost

Video of turkeys flying up into the pines out back.

pink of the week

Thanks to my friend Steev for sending me the link to this excellent footage of the early Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd on the BBC.

I dunno what's cooler--seeing them play live or watching Barrett and Roger Waters give lucid and thoughtful replies to an interviewer who's scarcely able to frame a respectful question.

Thanks also to jmp46 for uploading this to YouTube--along with other neat stuff, more early Floyd and such.

tabloid Lazarus?

A friend just told me . . .

The bad news is it seems that Weekly World News will no longer be published.

The good news is it's online and there's this cool article written by one of its contributors.

Aunt Mimi online

Couple months ago, I posted a video of the acoustic duo Aunt Mimi playing out in the front yard.

Since then they've been playing clubs and such as you can see at their website.

If you're in Boston MA this Saturday night, they'll be playing from 10PM to 12:30AM at Porter's, 173 Portland Street.

Some more info on Porter's.

Also posted on uberkayness.

penny postcards

Thanks to a friend of a friend, a cool site of old penny postcards: http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Eusgenweb/special/ppcs/ppcs.html

Here's a for instance--a postcard image of Main Street in Waverly VA.

dispatched from the land of fame #3

I've mentioned music producer Joe Boyd's book, White Bicycles.  It's very recommended for any a number of music fans, musicians, recording buffs, etc.

Indeed, I went to Boyd's site:

http://www.joeboyd.co.uk/

And I found there an interesting PDF of the program[me] for a Syd Barrett tribute concert:

http://www.joeboyd.co.uk/madcap_programme.pdf

Joe Boyd wrote a short dedication to Barrett in the program.  Like Boyd's book, also recommended reading, esp. for Barrett fans.

dispatched from the land of fame #2

Obscure to some, not to others is the premature death of one Elvis Costello.  Perhaps readers of science fiction (or conspiracy theoreticians) may conjecture that the performer did indeed die in a crash at Heathrow Airport in the 1984, that all the signs are there as plain as day.

See the second paragraph down at the site below for more:

http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2007/08/20/dylan-and-costello-coming-to-the-jack/

An anecdote dimly recalled: in the sleepy university town of Charlottesville, some radio listeners who heard the "news" held a private candlelight vigil with the records of the deceased playing all night long. 

And one fan, upon learning the not-so-sad truth of EC's continued good health, saw the hoax as an opportunity to appreciate Costello and his music.  Time to do what we might always do for the one that's lost--celebrate the time we've had together and all that issues forth.

dispatched from the land of fame #1

I'll begin ungraciously with my own tiny plot of notability--the vids I've recently posted on YouTube.



Aunt Mimi playing "I Don't Care" (above) has been viewed 306 times.

The Cashmere Jungle Lords playing "Apache" (below) has been viewed 296 times. 



These top two videos have been traveling close together in popularity, switching places now & then, for weeks now. 

The Loved Ones playing "Public Bath" has been seen 162 times, my "Egypt Lane" music vid 116 times and EBowed Toaster Oven 78 times.

While even mildly popular YouTube videos have been seen thousands of times, these viewing figures (and the current aggregate of 1,315 viewings for all 17 vids) are encouraging.  I didn't expect to do this well.

And I find it interesting that the most popular videos (and more than half of the overall viewings) are of good performances of fondly remembered, if obscure, cover tunes.  The top two, both shot on the fly with little skill or preparation on my part, have what web meisters so often call "content".  The third live vid, while shot with someone possessing more experience and better equipment than I, is even more cavalier in terms of form.  It's the song and (at any moment, 2/3rds of) the band playing it--that's it.

today on uberkayness--hawk on vane

Hawk on weather vane at Adams Nat'l Historic Site.

botany illustrations on BibliOdyssey

Yet more cool stuff at the great blog BibliOdyssey.

Plant illustrations from & info about the 19th century book American Medical Botany:

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/08/american-medical-botany.html

Nick's sister, Gabrielle

Often the last to know, I just realized that Gabrielle Drake, the actress who played the purple wigged Moonbase commander Lt. Ellis on the TV series UFO, is sister to singer/songwriter/guitarist Nick Drake:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Drake

Her name had stuck in my head before, but only when reading about her acting career in Joe Boyd's book White Bicycles did dawn break on Marblehead.

Original Oz illustrations @ BibliOdyssey

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/08/original-oz.html

Images from the original publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

If ever a Wiz there was . . .

"laughter preferable to tears"

An interesting intersection of two 1960s American institutions, game show TV and avant-garde music . . .

Composer John Cage performs his "Water Walk" on I've Got A Secret, hosted by Garry Moore.

Posted on YouTube by holotone.

getting buggy on uberkayness

Today on uberkayness:

moths & bees & such--photos of the aforementioned plus dragonflies & a lily in profile

add one butterfly--video of monarch butterfly

Civil War envelopes @ BibliOdyssey

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/08/american-civil-war-envelopes.html

"it's a happening thing"

Indeed.

My friend Steev sent me this link to an MP3 of a Crybaby wah pedal promo record from 1967.

Once you're there, just click on the record to hear it.

funky animatronics on Music Thing

I hear this is how T.S Eliot started with Cats:

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2007/08/scary-hacked-animatronic-robots-sing.html

Hope to see these Chuck E. Cheese escapees doing a road show soon.

VIDEO POSTSCRIPT:



Checking out other animatronic videos by this fellow christhrash, I saw the above and was really struck by the very cool light show.

With the house lights down & judicious use of tight spots, I forget the singing figure here is a big robotic mouse cheerleader holding pom-poms.

touch the sound w/Evelyn Glennie

I do have to wonder what cave I live in when it takes me 3 years to hear about a movie like Touch The Sound. Or lord knows how many years to hear of a musician like Evelyn Glennie.

Hopefully the trailer above (posted by negativerad) will move you out of any similar hermitage & into a brisk sunshiny day. Tho' I'd pay more mind to her keen awareness and less to her clinically defined deafness.

And if you want to hear her live:
http://www.evelyn.co.uk/live/ForthcomingSchedule.htm

ever seen or heard of a Violano-Virtuoso?

Thanks to a friend and his friend, I got to see & hear a Violano-Virtuoso last night. Many Irving Berlin tunes were played, some Jolson.

Evidently, there's also the Double Violano-Virtuoso with two mechanically played violins and a piano.

A few links:

HistoryWired

a MIDI-fied Violano project

The Musical Museum, London

Nice photos here

POSTSCRIPT:
The Violano-Virtuoso I saw had been recently MIDI-fied.

So rather than playing Violano piano rolls, it was playing MIDI files extracted from the rolls via a homebrew piano roll scanner devised by a group of mechanical musical instrument enthusiasts (including the owner of the V-V). The scanner, built using elements from flatbed scanners, reads a roll in increments of 5/1000ths of an inch and thereby creates both a graphic copy for making new rolls and the aforementioned MIDI file.

Hooking up to the MIDI interface a Palm Pilot full of these MIDI files, the Violano owner could easily call up tunes at will.

ads--to add or not to add

In case you've been reading this blog, you should be advised . . .

Like so many others, I think of money.

More of it. Less of it. Making and saving and spending it.

Not being immune to thoughts of money, I think of adding Google's AdSense to this blog.

I've no illusions that more than the slightest bit of $ will come of it.

Still, the notion won't go away.

True, ads can be annoying--but I tend to ignore them.

And some feel that ads cheapen or undermine the credibility of a blog or website. I somehow fail to see this blog as some bastion of integrity--beyond yes I like the things I write about.

So while I'm hardly sensible enough to take any of your sage advice to heart, you the reader might consider commenting on whether to do AdSense or not.

If I receive no comments on this, I'll have to assume there are a million billion of you out there who couldn't care less either way . . .

And whoever writes in I'll know to be a true blue friend. Y'know, someone I can borrow five bucks from sometime.

"human piano" @ Music Thing

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2007/07/human-piano-not-entirely-piano-but.html

iPod signals are chosen, routed, blended via human contact.

Neat . . .

music & mind @ Music Thing

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2007/07/oliver-sacks-on-music-mind-and.html

Great links to Oliver Sacks on music & the mind.  Also to a vid interview on hit prediction software & what not.

ever hear of the Gospel Chicken House?

Tho' a secularly minded fellow myself, the Gospel Chicken House looks like the spot to be.

Anyplace that has music and chicken statuary has to be great.

Or so I'm guessing--I've yet to go.

But if you have any yearning for gospel bluegrass and find yourself close to Montpelier VA, consider dropping by there.

cool how-to vids

I like this vid, done with offstage voice speaking and hand bringing sheets of paper with images & text in and out of sight. Gives things an informal, breezy "yes, you can do this" tone.

The good folks at Commoncraft have also done a video on using RSS feeds and another on social networking sites.

have I ever mentioned BibliOdyssey?

Well, in case I haven't: BibliOdyssey is a great blog full of old arcane illustrations, book art and such.

Highly recommended . . .

POSTSCRIPT:

Some cool BibliOdyssey entries I had to mention:

Outsider Soul

Armour to Paper - on the Origins of Etching

Tradescant's Orchard

Just scratching the surface of what you'll find there . . .

uberCopicat echo on Music Thing

Super pricey/maxxed out tape echo on Music Thing (where else?).

In a chapter of my life entitled "Tape Echoes I've Known & Loved", you'll find the much loved Roland Space Echo (meh) and a Guild rebrand of the WEM Copicat (still got it, still love it).

The new echo on MT is some hyper-audiophile version of the Copicat (designed it seems by the same guy). Much as I like mine, I dunno if an expensive duded-up version is such a good thing.

on uberkayness--scenes from the Riverdale

Today on uberkayness:

Pics of what used to be the Riverdale movie theater in Hampton, VA.

Carpin Family Odyssey Page

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzertx2j/carpinfamilyodyssey/

In case you folks didn't hear, Dom Carpin's driving x-country with his 3 sons.  The above is a record of their ongoing trip.

Travelin' by armchair,
K.

the Plantation Drive In

No pics of it, but a good description:

http://cinematreasures.org/theater.php/11868/

Or you can find old Newport News VA theatres and such:

http://cinematreasures.org/search/query=Newport+News&search=city

Neat stuff at this site on other old theatres.   Check it out.

Also on uberkayness: a related post on the Newmarket Theatre behind the old Newmarket Shopping Center.

say huh?

I'm a great believer in compartmentalization. Or: not letting your right hand know what your left is doing.

To keep myself guessing, I like variety to the point of extreme eclecticism. Not to say I like everything. But that would be convenient in regards to making oneself happy.

I like lots of different music & different musical approaches. I like some traditional folk music (witness the recent Summerfest entry) and I like rather plain vanilla late 20th century pop music. And I like some more tripped out and aggro music.

I like music by folks who can play their instruments well. And music by those who can barely tune up but don't let such technicalities prevent them from doing whatever they can do to say whatever they want.

Anyhow, don't be too surprised if I'm talking up the Shaggs or Harry Partch one minute and Women In Docs and John Roberts the next.

You may find in your own musical wanderings that if it's something you want to hear or want to make yourself, there is no why beyond the wanting.

And so it is here.

in the wake of Summerfest 2007

Rather than upload some blurry photos etc., I'll just give some links to some of my faves from the New Bedford Summerfest this past weekend.

John Roberts, a perennial favorite, has a new CD out, Sea Fever.

Women In Docs are great, too. Click their gig guide re their ongoing US tour.

Eric Schwartz could be the funniest singing/songwriting man alive. Or I just don't get out much. Maybe both statements are true.

These were hardly the only talented folk that graced the Summerfest stages. I can think of Judy Cook and Vance Gilbert and Jeff Davis. And there were so many more.

If you're around New Bedford MA early next July, you may hear some favorites of your own.

devil & Dan'l Johnston

Seems goofy to embed a movie trailer, but I humbly recommend you see The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

I've nothing articulate to say: I'm not an old fan. Might be a new fan, if only of his cool home movies and sheer creative drive. But if you don't know the guy's art or music or life, you might want to.

the Dresden Dolls land on Venice Beach

Words won't do (& I'm in a rush) so here's yet another Massachusetts duo (give or take one talented drummer or 50 devoted fans) parsing it out for the girls & boys on the "Shores of California".

Full disclosure: the Diamond Dave (that's Mr. David Lee Roth to you, bub) vid it's riffing on.

Lifted

Another new homebrew music videos of one of my old tunes.

Unlike "Egypt Lane", which was inspired by a specific place, "Lifted" is a more abstract piece (tho' with some old live video thrown in).

Also posted on uberkayness.

Harry Partch on YouTube

Cool Harry Partch documentaries--above is part 1 of 6 of a doc from the BBC. Courtesy ShockTheseTrees.

The one below (part 1 of 3), courtesy oddmusic, seems to have more performances of Partch's music.



Here's the start of a third Partch documentary from 1968. Also, part 1 of Partch's Delusions of the Fury--thanks to blaxipad.

ebowing a toaster oven

What-what-ing the what?

Just as one can use a violin bow to play something other than violin strings, an Ebow (a sort of electromagnetic bow mostly used by guitar players) can be used to play the grill inside a toaster oven. Or any number of similar metal items.

My video above demonstrates that--if very basically.

Also a slide can be used to alter the pitch of the sound.

Now that you have this arcane knowledge, use it wisely . . .

Jamming with Ginger

Here's a video of Ginger the cat playing a theremin.

Courtesy renegadeaccordion and mentioned on sonicstate.com.

Devo interview

Recently caught on video--also at sonicstate.com.

the Modified Toy Orchestra

As the video embed proved to be squirelly, click here for a video (courtesy sonicstate.com) about the Modified Toy Orchestra, a group that plays circuit-bent toys.

While the interview with conductor Brian Duffy is okay, the video is short on compelling performance footage of the group.

My fave part (6:29 - 7:05) is Duffy demonstrating a circuit-bent toy electronic drum. Very cool.

And there's a great excerpt of their new CD at warmcircuit.com.

I don't care-Buck & Don et al

Having posted Aunt Mimi's roadside cover, I thought I'd embed this video of Buck Owens & his Buckaroos (courtesy sleepycreek, who's posted a slew of great country videos).

Remembering Buck as the assured pickin' & grinnin' host of Hee Haw, it kinda blows me away how in this other video ("Love's Gonna Live Here") he seemed to be getting his bearings as a TV performer. The man's giving a great musical performance, you bet--but as a MC he's blinking in the harsh camera light and reading stage remarks from something well below eye level.

Obviously he was always building onto his abilities as a performer. By the days of Hee Haw, he's facing & speaking to the camera like a best friend.

today on uberkayness: pictures of Stuckey's

pictures of Stuckey's: Stuckey's oh Stuckey's, near Williamsburg VA, Sept. 1999, in the wake of Hurricane Floyd.

shakin' all over

A cool electromechanical noise rig courtesy of muzack.

I also rather like these sparky set ups (brought to you by ashfordaisyak):



Kewl, huh . . .?

Makes me wish I'd had a camera when I e-bowed a certain kitchen appliance. (Whoops, I've said too much.)

jamming with Pauline Oliveros

Alternate title: Lady of Space.

I love Pauline Oliveros and so not surprisingly I love this video of her improvising with two percussionists. Not a rock star vid to be sure, as Oliveros doesn't show up 'til the end (and then only her her right hand playing accordion).

Here's another video of same folks, the Timeless Pulse Trio, featuring tuned percussions and some fun trippy video edits. And here's another. And one of Timeless Pulse as a duo (without Oliveros).

Aunt Mimi on the road

And in the front yard.

A homespun video I shot this afternoon of Steve Malatesta (right) & Derm Whittaker (left). Together they're called Aunt Mimi and they're caught in medias res singing the Buck Owens tune "I Don't Care".

Originally posted on uberkayness, this post breaks (for now?) my spate of avant-noisy video findings.

"it's okay . . I'm Glenn Branca's guitar tech . . ."

The funny thing about this video (uploaded to YouTube by sonichris) is how Glenn Branca kinda looks like The Boss with that Telecaster slung on.

'Course he's not. And this solo skronk fest is a bit different from Branca's later guitar symphonies. In any case, Branca rocks.

POSTSCRIPT: If the solo Branca footage seems a bit old-fashioned for your tastes, try this algorhythmic edit of the video by maurice666. To very roughly approximate: Jean-Luc Godard plays Pac-Man. Kewwwwwl.

"it's okay . . I'm starting a DNA tribute band . . ."

After your mom & dad have had time to say "a DNA wha' huh??", you could show them the following live footage of the inestimably skronky & skittery NYC No Wave band DNA & put their parental minds to rest.



Uploaded to YouTube by rawrumble courtesy www.brink.com (I'm guessing it's from the TV Party DVD).

Anyhow, gotta love these guys and in particular (for any of you electric guitarists playing at home) the very er, um, warm vintage tone Arto Lindsay's getting out of that 12-string Danelectro.

our pal Foot Foot

The Wiggins sisters' original live performances predate home video.

But through the magic of animation, there are two concept videos of the Shaggs' song "My Pal Foot Foot". (To quote Bart Simpson, "pleasure overload . . .")

Both feature the original figure of Foot Foot from the cover art of the Shaggs' now famed LP, Philosophy of the World. Our elusive friend catches air on a hilly bike ride in one video and dons a beret & pads about the Eiffel Tower in the other.

The video above has drawn renderings of the band members while the second one animates the photo images from the album.

Boston Typewriter Orchestra

My wife just told me about this ensemble she found out about at www.bigredandshiny.com.

Emerging from my 20 year sleep/secluded mountain cave/(insert here your own objective corelative for way out of touch cluelessness), I found a video vista of the BTO. And heck they were even on the local Fox channel and Fox Cable News.

'Course, what's old is new and what's new is old again (again).

Typewriters & music have not been so far apart. And there were likely typing pools (at least in broad concept) kicking out the jams among the Futurists and at the Cabaret Voltaire. Certainly there's a spectral presence of those early Modern tricksters.

Below the BTO presents a very Dickensian Xmas via a kinda outsourced Trans-Europe Express/Music Man vibe. Many happy returns . . .

dang ol' Capt. Beefheart on dang ol' Music Thing

The 10 commandments for guitarists as put forth by the good cap'n:

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2007/06/practice-in-front-of-bush-captain.html

Gotta go look for a bush . . .

the Monks, more Deni, Nico & the Cramps

If a picture's worth a thousand words, what's a video of guys with monks' haircuts all clustering around one guitar worth? Check it out above & see The Monks on German TV circa '66.

Here's a shortcut to more of those Duets With Deni clips, featuring the likes of Kimberley Rew and Richard Barone.

Dark den mother to all things underground, Nico sings "All Tomorrow's Parties".

The Cramps give a tip of the hat to Marcel Duchamp (I think). In any case, singer Lux Interior is sheathed in red PVC and wearing matching heels (Rrose Selavy?). And guitarist Poison Ivy is her usual bad self (all part of the "cornucopia of sex & horror" that is, well, purportedly her life). They will insist & you will believe: "You've Got Good Taste".

then I'll really love you

Deni Bonet rocks. And makes me laugh.

Evidently, she has a whole big tuneful history I was not clued into, but I've seen her before playing with that guitar playing/harmony singing guy in some movie.

YouTube also has this video of these two performing where Ms. Bonet breaks out her fiddle & the gentleman muso sings. And another, sprinkled with banter.

All very very good stuff.

And all from Ms. Bonet's Duets With Deni TV show.

POSTSCRIPT--More of Deni Bonet & Robyn Hitchcock:

Singing, talking about Robyn's cones.

Here singing "I've Got You Babe".

carpe datum?

Some funny guys who sing & play, the Flight of the Conchords perform "The Humans Are Dead". (Maybe this robot will interface with them.)

Laugh while you have a chance . . .

advice to more than a few

My friend Bob (who sent me the Miller Williams poem the other day) sent me a cool thing folk singer-songwriter Bob Franke wrote to advise other songwriters out there.

Having strung noise & even some music & words together at times, I rather liked his advice.

But I thought for anyone not literally bothering with such things, the words may still carry some weight:

http://www.bobfranke.com/critical.htm#Advice%20to%20Songwriters