cooltunes

At his site, you can see and hear some of the instruments he’s developed, including the phonoharp, much loved by the Kronos Quartet. There’s a wind-powered turntable, another turntable that can play a composition powered by an earthquake, and many other fascinating devices.

His photographs are awesome.

Just as some can see colors while listening to music, others can hear the sounds of a moving image, such as a screen saver. Kind of a crossover of the senses, as it were, called synaesthesia. This article contains a test you can take to see if you have this ability.

No difficulties working to Jeff Kowal’s The Gate . The didgeridoo raises the hackles just enough to keep me very alert.

And now, as they used to say on SNL, for something completely different.

Cliff Martinez soundtracks are always excellent accompaniments for a late evening drive to San Francisco. Wicker Park might not be the best for first thing Monday morning after trekking around mountainous trails on Sunday though.

It is surprising how many gentlemen of a certain age are out there climbing the steep grades on a bike.

About mid-morning, the crew brought out the boombox. I didn’t want to listen to it, so I cranked up my Blank & Jones collection, which can get me through most of the day in a productive haze. At some point, the painters turned down their stuff. After lunch maybe. Then they went to work on the beams, which meant they were close to where I was working. They got kinda quiet, although occasionally one would do the falsetto again, a melodic ballad that was nice.

They finished the whole house in a day. Very proud, they walked me around so I could see. As I was writing out the check, the lead guy said, ‘Nice music.’

Actually, the prep work is today. The pressure washing is done (forgot and left a bathroom window open, major mess), the windows all covered over. The workers have been singing, frequently in falsetto, and whistling. The boombox appeared, which is fine with me, my neighbor in back deserves a couple of days of noise favors returned.

The light inside is amazing, but kinda hard to concentrate on photos with all the outside activity. Tomorrow promises more of the same distraction, but at the end of the day, the house will look better than it has for two decades. Here I was thinking the prep would only take a couple of hours.

A small, secluded monastery comes close to topping the UK pop charts. Can one really be isolated if there is internet access? The story of the monks is here, and a video is here.

Are they able to handle the fame and subsequent fortune? Well, the abbot has an MBA, and a CD deal with Universal Music has been signed. Their PR person is on the cell constantly, when he is not dealing with the day-to-day of monastery life. There is perspective.

A journalist recounts his experience with a condition associated with world wars.

His advice: Don’t stand around in wet socks, don’t wrap plastic bags around wet socks, don’t sleep in wet socks. If not treated right, amputation is necessary.

Almost everyone, it seems, except musicians that the heartland holds dear.

I only found out about her this week, and also learned there is a genre of music called sadcore, which is related to shoegazing. Here’s Where is My Love.

When Chris, a blogger who infrequently contributes here, left to seek his fortune up north, he left behind some cacti. I came across this

and it’s definitely Chris.

I swore I’d never ever get another cat. But Nora here, kinda makes me want to get one someday. Far, far in the future.

Trudging toward the long weekend, overloaded with work, unable to blog much, need lively tunes. Just Walk on By.

Feel the Sunshine from their Relax: Edition 2 album.

Crystal Castles (remember She-Ra, He-Man’s twin sister?), Vampire Weekend, Hadouken!, My Morning Jacket, The Mars Volta, Gogol Bordello and Effi Briest, among others.

If you saw Mostly Martha, you’ll know it instantly, (not that the video has anything to do with the film) If you missed Mostly Martha, you should see it this weekend. It’s the German movie from which No Reservations was derived. Based on reviews read, the latter was a mere shadow of the former. Ci bum ci bum, du du du du du.

Click on any featured video. Go on, do it. (today only)

Via the Museum of Hoaxes. It’s a minefield out there today. Virgle, anyone? Wait, is that for real?

I’m not quite recovered from watching (in a weaker moment as relief from doing taxes) men who fish for Asian carp with bows, so the whole rickrolling thing was something of a surprise. I got my explanation from a son, but you can learn all about it here, in case you’ve been away from the intertubes.

Maybe. But the rumor is that users would expect to pay a high price when they buy iPods and iPhones in order to get the free pass to the iTunes library.

So how high are we talking about? How will other companies compete?

Well, Hans Zimmer did anyway.

An oldie, but definitely a goodie.

Boards of Canada on a day when the daffodils are blooming, the breeze is soft, and blossoms on the plum tree are still firmly attached and fragrant.

Incoming freshman in the fall will receive new tools to help them through their college years. Other university reps attending the ACU information officer’s presentation at Apple headquarters in Cupertino include those from UCLA, Oxford, Princeton, MIT, Yale and Harvard.

Talk about a nifty welcoming packet.

Info via Briefing.com

There I was, looking for contact lens cleaner down at the drugstore, when over the speakers came this song. That was Thursday. It is still spinning around in my head two days later.

Someday, science will discover where earworms hang out, that part of the brain (large it must be) where these old, annoying but horribly catchy tunes reside. And they will aim miniscule probes of light and take them away from us forever.

Scientists discovered fairly recently that materials can be made that force light beams go around an object, thereby rendering the object invisible. In the next logical move, a team of researchers has found that such an ‘invisibility cloak’ can be applied to sound. The project of bending soundwaves is proceeding at the Polytechnic University in Spain.

I could have used such a cloak in the last few weeks when a family member developed the high-decibel cough of a current bug making the rounds. My headphones are not the noise-cancelling kind, and even when I went outside to the front yard, the cough could still be heard. Now I’ve learned that this could go on for a full six weeks.

Surely, almost everyone could use the technology at some point in their lives.

I dropped a big stack of cds the other day. They were in the multicolored jewel cases, several of which did not survive the fall. Which persuaded me that I need a different kind of storage.

This one has its merits, but I was thinking more along the lines of binders.

The list gets longer and longer. He died at 30 while swimming in Memphis. The Wikipedia entry details his classical influences (Bartok, Britten, Ravel) and contemporary (Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, Van Morrison, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen, Elton John, Bob Dylan, among many others).

Near the time of his death, he confided to his girlfriend that he thought his mood swings were caused by bipolar disorder.

Here he sings Hallelejah, written by Cohen.

My Blueberry Nights with Jude Law as her leading man, Wong Kar Wai (In the Mood for Love) directing. She does not sing in the film, but has a song on the soundtrack.

I’ve long admired the writings of Reynolds Price. If you grew up in the deep South, you would recognize a certain courtly cadence to the speech patterns that he captures like no other contemporary writer, and he gets in a whole lot else besides.

He had some medical problems a while back, and I did a search to help me recall what they were. In the process, I found that he co-authored Copperline with James Taylor.

Yes, that does account for the unique nature of the lyrics, and why they run deeper than the average Taylor song.

Lately, I’ve been catching up with episodes of the long-running British series, ‘Monarch of the Glen’, set in Scotland. (I alternate that with the latest DVD of MI-5, aka Spooks, another animal entirely.) Sometimes I struggle to keep up with the thick accents of some cast members. Today, I woke up with Groundskeeper Willie’s rantings in my head.

Nothing specific since I don’t recall many of his quotes, but there’s this vague gibberish in a Scottish burr in the background as I work. It should be annoying, but it’s very funny.

Adam Freeland Extended Mix.

The rain has not let up all day, expected to keep up through the weekend and into next week.

Back in its heyday, KSFO’s night guy was Bobby Dale. When he was depressed, which was often the case, he would put on some Mickey Newbury. Especially if it was raining, because Mickey had those rain songs. Even now, I can’t think of Bobby without remembering Mickey.

For a short time, I worked at the station, and while I met the other DJs, I never saw Bobby since he only came in when most of the staff had gone home.

Back then, I didn’t know Bobby’s DJ history, nor was I aware of Mickey’s prolific songwriting abilities. Kris Kristofferson said that he could never have written Bobbie McGee had it not been for Newbury’s influence.

You won’t find Mickey Newbury at iTunes, but he’s at Amazon.

Here is An American Trilogy, which Newbury didn’t write, but arranged. He put three diverse, classic, Southern-flavored songs together in a stunning whole. Elvis and Tom Jones both had hits with their versions, but it’s this one I like the most:

Aha! With hundreds of albums sitting around the house, surely there’s a suitable one. Stay tuned. With endless rain predicted, one finds entertainment where one can.

Note: the linked weather page info is updated each day (today being 1/25/08), and if you are viewing this in July, it will not be pertinent.

At her site, a poem called Souvenance.

She uses a Land 250, and the show will be at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Here are some sample shots taken from an earlier exhibition.

All Right Now - Bad Company
It’s All Right - Huey Lewis and the News
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right - Bob Dylan

then there’s the other spelling:
It’s Alright - Ray Charles
It’s Alright - Van Morrison
It’s Quite Alright - Rancid
It’s Alright - Pet Shop Boys
It’s Alright For You - The Police
It’s Alright - Trisha Yearwood
It’s Alright - Shania Twain
It’s Alright - Queen Latifah
It’s Alright With Me - Harry Connick, Jr.

If you still need comforting, here’s Sting singing Little Wing with help from Branford Marsalis and others:

When I was very small, someone read to me a story of either a mountain king or an elf king. The hero of the story was a small boy who somehow got into the great hall, and had to escape. I’m not sure of the origin, there seem to be several variations of this story. At the time, it scared the daylights out of me.

Many know the music from Edvard Greig’s Peer Gynt, but Peter Lorre’s character whistles it in the movie M, and that is a most haunting version. He can scare the daylights out of me too.

Out of the blue tonight, sorta, I’m watching Apocalyptica’s video.

Over at Musical Warfare, Chris can discuss Apocalyptica much more intelligently than I, when he is not talking about other metal groups. They’ve been around for awhile, but cello metal is very new to me.

It was an idea waiting to happen: Spanish Fly by Will Ferguson comes with its own soundtrack.

The lyrics refer to mashed potatoes and leftovers washed down with pie. A terribly depressing song about loneliness, but with redeeming food. The YouTube video that features the song as sung by Rufus Wainright and Dido from the Bridget Jones film has only the movie ad as a visual. Disappointing, but the song is intact. And if you’re a Colin Firth fan, as I am, you can gaze at him during the singing.

I handed the CD to the receptionist, following the dental assistant in right away (even though I was really early), since this is the office that feels sitting and reading magazines will make patients more nervous.

This visit would consist of extensive, serious, no-nonsense, deep cleaning. I had crowns put in previously, and it is hard to floss, so there were lessons on the proper way. First, the polishing. In the background, very faintly, I could hear bits of songs, some apparently being rejected, although with the sounds coming from the instruments, it was hard to tell. I was reminded of chain saws in the distance taking care of downed trees in the recent storms.

When the dentist arrived, out came the tiny, sharp things that made me jump. She promised that if I took better care of my teeth, next time would be much better.

On the way out, Queen Latifah was wishing she was in California on such a winter’s day. Short appointment, much better than the three-hour kind. I wanted to dance down the steps because I won’t have to be back till July.

Here Comes the Sun (Francois K remix) - Nina Simone
Quando, Quando, Quando (with Nelly Furtado) - Michael Buble
This Never Happened Before - Paul McCartney and Wings
South of the Border - Chris Isaak
Your Love is Mine - The New Mastersound, featuring Corinne Bailey Rae
California Dreamin’ - Queen Latifah
Waters of March - Al Jarreau and Oleta Adams
I’ll Fly Away - Sphere
Dindi - El deBarge and Art Porter
Primavera - Ludovico Einaudi
Here, There and Everywhere - Emmylou Harris
Fields of Gold - Eva Cassidy

The inner workings of songs from Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, John Lennon, Queen and Amy Winehouse, among others.

Using chord variations to manipulate listeners’ emotions is also discussed at length in This is Your Brain on Music: the Science of a Human Obsession, by Daniel J. Levitin, which I got for Christmas. Thanks, Chris!

Something about a linkup with Amazon and the Super Bowl early in February. Via The Register.

The list includes Tim Burton, Robin Williams, Buzz Aldrin, Robert Downey, Jr., Francis Ford Coppola, Ted Turner and many musicians. Nina Simone is not listed here, but there is mention in her wikipedia entry that her diagnosis was kept a secret.

Haven’t you always wanted an instrument you could play just by waving your hands over it?

It’s always interesting to see whose music is used again and again in ads. I happened on Regina Spektor’s catchy Hotel Song yesterday, and found that Vodafone is not the only company using her songs. Microsoft, British Sky Broadcasting, JCPenney, KPNand XM Satellite Radio also use her voice to help pitch their wares.

Here’s the video to Fidelity. As far as I know, the song has not been used in any commercials, but is one of her most popular videos.

How Bill Nguyen plans to make lala.com the ultimate music site by offering free music. Via Wired.

Kind of tough getting back into the work routine, but these smooth the process a bit:

See-Line Woman - Verve Remixed
Feelin’ Good - Joe Claussell Remix
Here Comes the Sun - Francois K Remix

The Gustavo Santaolalla portions from the North Country soundtrack, the rain possibly turning to sleet, the music taking on a peculiar high-pitched keening in the distance that turns out, after removing my earbuds, to be a jet.

A scholarly discussion (with tongue firmly in cheek) published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The site has a bit of a problem displaying text via Firefox on a Mac, your experience might be better.