- Last night I made the mistake of beginning to watch the Lance Bangs Pavement documentary “Slow Century”. A mistake because I should have known it would’ve been too fascinating to turn off, no matter how late the hours got. If you’ve got the time, here it is:
- Sage Francis has resurrected the Tumblr Hello There, Racists after an apparent shut down. I think it’s outrageous to say it isn’t fair to publicly chastise these people, knowing full well that Twitter and Facebook are publicly viewed domains (they’re basically the 21st Century “public square”). It also serves to remind us of some very important things, two of which: you’re not invisible on the Internet, and if you want to say outrageous shit you’d better damn well be posting anonymously (then again anyone with half a brain can trace an IP address), and yes… racism definitely still exists. Some of this shit is just disgusting.
- Very interesting article, that very well might go over your head a little (went over mine at least), on the nature of dark energy. Is it static or dynamic in its existence. If it’s dynamic… yeesh, the philosophical implications of such a thing are astronomical; a form of matter whose density and composition and structure changes as it shifts though space time??
While hypothesized dark energy can explain observations of the universe expanding at an accelerating rate, the specific properties of dark energy are still an enigma. Scientists think that dark energy could take one of two forms: a static cosmological constant that is homogenous over time and space, or a dynamical entity whose energy density changes in time and space. By examining data from a variety of experiments, scientists in a new study have developed a model that provides tantalizing hints that dark energy may be dynamic.
The results are still far from conclusive, but the scientists hope that future data might narrow down the models with greater accuracy. They hope that observations by the Planck spacecraft (launched in 2009; first data available in April 2013) and the Euclid spacecraft (launch date is 2019) could help pinpoint the dark energy models that most closely describe our expanding universe.
- Great piece of street art (graffiti, if you prefer that term; I really could care less what it’s called) from GOIN, who I believe works out of the UK:
- Francsesco Francavilla has been doing minimalist Breaking Bad posters for each episode throughout July. I’m hoping he’ll eventually do the entire series. Here’s an example:
- Economist Dambiso Moyo explains how to close the resources gap with China, and how they’re quietly and very successfully buying up land all over the world to extract exotic minerals and other natural resources:
“Even if all nations were to engage in multilateral discussions about resources, the world would still face the core problem–too little supply for too much demand. Aggressive government meddling in commodity markets (such as banning commodity speculators) has, on balance, tended to do more harm than good. Policies aiming to curb demand, such as higher taxes on consumption, are possible but remain politically unpalatable in a world dedicated to possessing ever-more material goods and a higher standard of living. A few supply-side policies show more promise. These include eliminating inefficient food subsidies and discouraging food waste, encouraging the recycling of metals, and investing in research and development for alternatives or solutions to resource scarcity.”
Been working like a dog lately. And I’m going in today for a bit too, so here goes nothin:
- The rebels in Syria have had a hard time — one might say impossible — capturing Damascus. So now they’re focusing what they can muster on the country’s other city: Aleppo. They must be gaining lots of ground too, the government is moving their troops on the border with Turkey to the second-city. Fast. They’ve also deployed, and are deploying, fighter jets and helicopters. “In other developments”:
Russia’s foreign ministry says it has received “firm assurances” that regime’s chemical weapons stockpile is “fully safeguarded”
The new commander for the UN observer force, Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, arrived in Damascus, saying he hoped his team would be able to help “alleviate the suffering”
Activists say two more diplomats have defected to Qatar: Cyprus envoy Lamia al-Hariri and her husband Abdelatif al-Dabbagh, ambassador to the United Arab Emirates; one report says Mr Dabbagh was prevented from leaving Damascus
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lambasts the US for failing to condemn the killings of top regime figures last week, saying the US position “is directly justifying terrorism”
- New BitTorrent software will apparently be sponsored, not pirated, in an attempt to get some amount of compensation for artists. The debate rages on, and I won’t pretend to know or say anything about it that is worldview shattering. I will say, though, that this seems like a bit of a copout from the “music should not be free” side.
- Johnny Sampson makes concert/gig posters. Here’s one he did for the Pitchfork Music Festival:
At the heart of the seven-tonne, $2bn machine is a giant, specially designed magnet which bends the paths of extraordinarily high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays onto a series of detectors, giving hints of what the particles are.
A series of ever-larger particle accelerators built here on Earth aim to drive particles to ever-higher energies, smashing them into one another to simulate the same processes that create them elsewhere in the cosmos.
But no Earth-bound experiment can match nature’s power as a particle accelerator – and Earth’s atmosphere absorbs incoming cosmic rays – so the AMS will catch some of these high-energy particles “from the source”, as a kind of complement to the likes of the Large Hadron Collider.
(WordPress for the longest time did not support direct embedding of Vimeo videos. They’re smart for changing that: seems to me Vimeo is the preferred upload source for any serious videographers or film buffs.)
- ARTIST OF THE DAY is without a doubt Julian Callos. Surreal but not overtly complex. Very subtle and efficient use of color. Ethereal, philosophical, a real auteur. And you know what? I’ve posted his art before. But I’m going to again. And in six months I probably will again. Lookie:
“The documentary opens with a seed seller arriving in Manjusha’s village. The genetically engineered BT seeds, a product of the American company Monsanto, are being advertised, by itinerant sellers and on television, as yielding more crops and increasing profits. The farmers are skeptical but have no choice: No conventional seeds are sold in the village. Monsanto’s Indian representatives are not forthcoming about the exact differences between their genetically engineered seed and a conventional seed. They deny, for example, that the seed requires more fertilizer. Independent studies have also been restricted, but back in the villages, Manjusha’s and her neighbors’ plight illustrates the havoc that the introduction of the BT seed has wreaked on farming populations. The seed is non-renewable; it does not re-grow and must be purchased each year. It requires just the right amount of water, with entire crops wasted if rain is meager, or abundant. “
- I think I have enough coffee in me to go record some guitar now.
- Holyshit holyshit holyshit… El-P posted the first finished copy of “Cancer For Cure” tonight:
- A new Tumblr by some guy depicts literary characters via a computer based Police composite sketch machine. Except instead of using witness testimony, he’s using descriptions lifted straight from classic novels. My favorite so far is the celestial and creepy “The Judge” from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian:
Yep, creepy as hell.
- Warren Ellis recently thought aloud via social networking on the idea of Podcasting/making DJ mixes and including artists’ work without asking them. I don’t think it’s a big deal, and I’m a musician. Obviously if you’re making money off it, then that is a whole ‘nother can of worms. But if one makes mixes, posts them to a blog or website with no advertising what’s so ever, I really don’t see the harm. And yes, I am even of the opinion that this applies to podcasts which are downloadable (again, as long as the podcaster isn’t making money off it). It’s called marketing. In the 21st century — now well into decade 2 — marketing and publicity have morphed so much, I’m not sure if a marketing executive from 1995 would recognize them. To apply the Old Models to the New World is foolish and naive. Artists of all kinds, but especially musicians, need to get examples of what they do out to the buying public through as many alleyways possible. Hell, even corporate backed artists use Twitter and Facebook.
This reminds me of a situation I ran into about a year ago. 2010 was wrapping up and I was scraping together a batch of my favorite music of the year. I thought it might be cool to do songs as well, since I never really do. So I made a DJ mix — where I tied the songs together as seamlessly as I could — ripping through 10 of my favorite songs that came out in 2010. It was all one track, about half an hour long, available for download on my Soundcloud. It was up for a while (maybe 4 or 5 months?), then all of a sudden it disappeared; the same day I got an e-mail from Soundcloud. The e-mail talked about how one of the bands I included in the mix saw it and asked Soundcloud to remove it (I think threatening legal action?) immediately. Ironically enough, the band in question turned out to be probably the second least famous band of the bunch. I won’t say who they are, but they’re local and probably have to work day jobs on the side. The way I see it, I put some amount of money in their pocket: there’s no way at least one single person didn’t buy one of their CDs, attend one of their shows, or tell a friend about them at the very least as a result of listening to or downloading the mix. As I said, the Old Model is trivial at this point. Adapt or face natural selection.
- First off, apparently there’s a Tumblr page out there that specializes in Thai citizens using clever and unique ways to cope with flooding. Some of these are just brilliant, just slapping empty water bottles onto your dog to ensure it doesn’t drown, or air-sealing your car with a giant plastic bag to ensure it doesn’t get ruined. This is innovation at its finest.
- Then there’s this other ingenious Tumblr page which recreates classic album covers with kittens instead of the artists themselves. Artists range from Prince, the Cure, Sonic Youth, Mary J. Blige, the Ramones, Bob Dylan, etc, etc, etc. Excellent and cute stuff here.
- Not sure what country or city this is from, but if you’re looking for Internet wierdness, look into SUPERNATURE! on LiveJournal. Enough cryptic messages and bizarre visuals to make you question the very nature of reality.
- Perhaps not surprisingly so, FACEBOOK hosts 4% of all photos ever taken (as in: in the history of the world). It dwarfs other photo sharing sites, even FLICKR. 1000Memories estimates some 3.5 trillion photos have been taken. Maybe it’s just me, but that number seems a little low. Anyway, here’s the chart:
- I’m finally realizing that TUMBLR isn’t really for writing. Per say. It’s more of a reblogging site, who’s content therein consists mostly of pictures and animated GIFs (one would be hard-pressed to find 3 or 4 phtotoless entries with a word count of more than 1000). It’s addicting. Though due to the content I’ve posted onDEAD TRUMPETS I’ve never found myself craving it too badly. Or at all. Therefor I’m thinking I’m going to shut her down, and relocate all its entries into a sub-category on this site. To catelog these, I’ve got to post them. Just gloss over if you don’t care to read my shitty fiction about a dead musician. Ha.
- And now, a riff on an old, and very famous, X-Men cover:
- Umm… yeah so that Wugazi record is available for free download now, I’d suggest copping it. Here’s the DIRECT LINK. Go and visit the Tumblr page for the cover art, track listing, instant streaming, and more. Free music, WOOOO!!
- Speaking of Tumblr, John from Super Punchnow has one. Which it seems is more for pictures than anything else.
- I posted a little snippet of a song that will be appearing on the next album I make on my Soundcloudyesterday. It features the infamous drone-guitar sound I created using a motorized female stimulation tool (trying to avoid using the “V” word…) directly onto the bridge of the guitar (it’s also metal so you get a nice ambient hum into the pickups, which are magnets if you didn’t know). Here it is:
- I got Warren Ellis’SVKcomic in the mail yesterday and I gotta say, this is the most Ellis-ian comic we’ve seen from him in quite some time. It’s too bad he’s falling further and further away from the artform (he’s signed a two-novel deal with a publisher) because I feel like there’s been a natural progression for him — via lectures and non-fiction and essays and the like — towards this type of storytelling and these concepts for years now. (I’m glad I got one, because it sold-out in like 2 or 3 days.)
- So the Doomtree crew, who may as well be called “Super Friends”, has a new project where they’re combining the music of one of my favorite punk bands of all-time with one of my favorite hip-hop collectives of all-time:
FUGAZI + WU-TANG = WUGAZI
They have a Tumblr-based website for the project already, and they’ve so far released two tracks on their Soundcloud. Here’s the newest, delicious track:
- Want to know what Google thinks you’re into? CLICK HERE. Apparently I’m into comics, meat and seafood recipes, radio, myths and folklore, astronomy, hip-hop, visual art and design, and movies. That isn’t 100% wrong…
- Iron Fist Clothingmakes some pretty cool stuff for the more punk-aestheticized amongst us.
