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.