Some links… happy Turkey Day
November 26, 2008
Disclaimer: Posting may be pretty sporadic over the next few days as Megan and I head to east TN to visit my family for thanksgiving.
Today I just have some links for you. No rants. Just some links… mainly because Kottke.org had my RSS feed full of goodness this morning. The following three are from Kottke.
Photography is for Jerkoffs.
A very clever way to put the impressiveness of a magnetic hard drive into perspective.
Chinese use rockets to get the cables for a bridge higher than the Empire State Building across the gorge over which it is being built.
Via NME: It’s finally official. They’ve teased us for over a year now, but Blur is reuniting for another album. Let’s hope they tour too. I’m skeptically excited.
The Boston Globe’s website continues to post amazing hi-res photographs of even more amazing things, such as this series of International Space Station.
And now, for your daily dose of WTF?!?!? Blowjobs as performance art:
Enjoy your thanksgiving!
Impromptu Matt Mahaffey (sElf) show at the Boro
November 25, 2008
Last night one of my favorite musicians/artists of all time, Matt Mahaffey (of sElf), played a last-minute show at the Boro Bar & Grill in Murfreesboro. I already was planning to attend the benefit show he’s playing this saturday in Johnson City for his late brother Mike’s kids/family, and to see him play twice in one week was all the more awesome. His fans, especially the old-school ones from around middle TN, are all just great people. It’s amazing how his music seems to only attract the best of people as fans. The show was really just a “warmup” for saturday’s show, which he said will include his longtime friend Seth Timbs of Fluid Ounces collaborating on some songs. I was fortunate enough to catch last year’s benefit for Mike, also in Johnson City, and I can only imagine how this one will be even better with Seth’s contributions. It’s amazing how last night’s show was announced at 1pm yesterday, and in about 8 hours word got around enough for 80-100 or so people to cram into the Boro. I won’t get into how that place has gone downhill in the last few years, but Matt and the crowd that showed up definitely made it cool again at least for one night. I was doing some videotaping, but I doubt I will post anything from last night since I’m also taping Saturday’s show. However, Jess McKelly was also recording with her pocket video camera, so check out her YouTube page in the next couple of days for some clips.
Nashville Cream has been doing some cool ticket giveaways lately. They’ve been posting some absurd photos and giving the tix to whoever comes up with the wittiest/snarkiest caption in the comments of the thread. Just go over and read some of the hilarity, or even post one yourself for a chance to win.
This has seriously got to be one of the coolest optical illusions I’ve ever seen on the web. Drag the lines slowly for the best results. Link via Bad Astronomy.
Nicole Kidman apparently loves Nashville, and is a little worried about the “secret getting out.”
Stargate Universe coming in 2009/Kerry Collins the songwriter
November 19, 2008
Wow. I’ve only been doing this for about a month and I’m already getting requests from a promotions company to review an album. Look for some mp3’s and my take on the new local band Blue Eyed Blacks, and their first album “Black Eyed Soul” soon.
If you know me at all, you know that I’m a huge sci fi nerd, and that I’ve been an avid fan of both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis for many years now. SG-1 was the longest running sci fi television series ever, lasting a whopping 10 years. They started Atlantis as a spinoff in 2005, and even had some interesting interplay between the two series while they overlapped. While I was sad to see SG-1 come to an end in 2007, I knew it was time, and quite frankly, the new SG-1 team just wasn’t quite the same without Richard Dean Anderson’s character, Colonel Jack O’Neil. I was heartbroken initially upon hearing that this current season of Atlantis will be its last, which prompted me to do a little research as to the reasoning for this, and in the process I discovered that executive producers Brad Wright and Robert Cooper are up to something new: another spinoff series called Stargate Universe. There’s not much info about it yet, but according to the press release, it will be set on a ship rather than earth or a remote base, and the crew will be a group of earth explorers who get stuck on this ship and have to fend for themselves as the ship carries out its unalterable mission of exploring the entire universe. Yes, not just one galaxy… the whole universe. I’m cautiously excited about this new direction for the franchise. I really hope the writers keep the same level of character development of the other two and keep using the layers and layers of mythology developed in the SG-1 series. Read the full press release to get the details if you’re interested.
I’m not a sports fanatic by any means, but I have been following my hometown team, the Tennessee Titans, for several years now, and of course I’m quite happy to see them leading the NFL at 10-0. Their veteran quarterback Kerry Collins apparently has an unlikely side-hobby: songwriting. Only in Nashville.
And now for some debunking. I came across this video on Oddee.com and couldn’t resist posting it because of the astonishing absurdity.
Because the show on which this guy Ramana is performing is in Dutch I really don’t know how seriously they’re taking him, but how can anyone not see that big wooden post (and base) to which he’s attached? Are people completely blind?!?!? I have much respect for the needle and thread trick he does, and for any tricks that require real skill and years of practice. I also think his performance art installations of hanging on the sides of buildings are interesting in a purely artistic sense, but this particular levitation stunt is just silly. “Illusions” that are obviously the result of specialized props just piss me off.
Random interesting tidbit: Scientists have created microscopic Obamas out of carbon nanotubes.
And The Relatives release “Animals”/Space Shuttle mission underway
November 17, 2008
And The Relatives, a local indie rock trio featuring my friend and fellow Scene contributor Patrick Rodgers on drums, have released their first proper EP “Animals.” Their EP release show was this past friday at the 5 Spot, but I was unable to attend due to a huge conference at work. I highly recommend checking them out this thurs. Nov. 20th (I may be there- it’s my birthday afterall) at the End with The Ettes, The Howlies, and Mean Tambourines. For a couple of free mp3’s, head over to Out The Other. They are part of a new collective of bands/artists known as Holly House. I’ve heard this name a few times over the past year or so, and recently I checked out their website to find that they have quite a lineup of bands associated with them. They seem to be onto something good here- a collective of bands just trying to make good music and help each other out with booking, etc… Basically it’s like Movement Nashville, but not so focused on the commercial/business aspect. The artists/bands associated with MN are very commercial sounding (and sometimes acting), and I think that leaves a bad taste in many mouths amongst local bands who really just want to make good music, regardless of the commercial appeal. I have nothing against a band trying to make a little money doing what they love, but sometimes it’s just too blatantly obvious that they’re making their art fit into a certain formulaic mold, at which point I usually say “no thanks.”
This is slightly old news by now, but the Space Shuttle Endeavour blasted off from Kennedy Space Center Friday night at 7:55pm EST and successfully docked with the International Space Station at 5:01pm EST Sunday. You can watch live footage from the mission at NASA TV. While we’re talking about NASA, there’s a little speculation about the future of NASA under the new Obama Administration. Current NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has said that he will stick around only if Obama wants to keep things going steady on the current course of developing the new Constellation program, and retiring the Shuttle in 2010. For more info see the full story at Universe Today.
Some random links:
10 fascinating last pictures of famous people before they died.
Obama plans to begin doing weekly YouTube video updates. FDR 2.0 maybe?
Plasma plants may vaporize garbage while generating power.
Photographs of female body builders. Not for the faint of heart….
And finally I’ll leave you with this bit of inspiration, thanks to the Holly House website:
Vinyl+mp3s= success/Extrasolar Planets
November 14, 2008
CD’s are slowly becoming useless pieces of plastic, and good old vinyl records are making a comeback. I am sad to say that I only recently jumped on the vinyl bandwagon (at least for new releases). My vinyl collection really only consisted of the old records I will eventually inherit from my dad, plus a few other old Beach Boys records. I only recently started buying new releases on vinyl, but I’m totally in love with the idea of having a record at home, plus a digital version of the album for the trusty ol’ iPod. I think this is the future of music formats- embracing the greatness of the format of the past, while also embracing the format of the future. I think every release should be available on vinyl with a free download code inside the packaging. Normally the record label has the digital download on their website, but Insound is putting a new twist on this whole phenomenon by offering the albums for free download with a vinyl purchase, putting the digital end of the transaction in the hands of the online retailer, instead of the record label. Kudos.
Three exoplanets orbiting a young star 140 light years away are captured using Keck Observatory near-infrared adaptive optics. The planets are labeled and the two outer ones have arrows showing the size of their motion over a 4 year period.
The first-ever direct images of extrasolar planets have been released by NASA. This marks a major milestone in the search for that ever-elusive extrasolar “earth twin” that astronomers are looking for. Not only did they image one planet, they imaged three! I’m a huge fan of the effort to detect an earth-sized extrasolar planet, and I’ve eagerly awaiting the day that the science community announces such a discovery. Astronomers seem to mostly agree that there are earth-like planets lurking out there, it’s just that we haven’t been able to detect them yet. The smallest extrasolar planet detected thus-far is about 5 times bigger than earth. The vast majority of extrasolar planets are gigantic- several times the size of Jupiter, which makes them easy to detect through indirect methods. Earth-sized planets will be much harder to detect, and we just don’t have instruments or telescopes sensitve enough to detect them. Thus, I will probably have to wait until well after the launch of the new James Webb Space Telescope or the Kepler Observatory to get that exciting news.
Brian Wilson/Robert Schneider encounters
November 12, 2008
So the Brian Wilson record signing at Grimey’s was a bit anti-climatic, but it should be expected, I guess. We stood in line outside in the cold for about an hour to get in. To my dismay they’d just sold out of his new album on vinyl, so I had to get it on CD. (The deal was that you had to buy a copy of his new album there at Grimey’s in order to get him to sign it, and you could also bring 1 other item.) My other item was the awesome original mono version that Megan got me for Christmas last year. Mr. Wilson was robotic in his signing, to put it lightly. He didn’t even make eye contact with anyone.
But the man is lucky to be alive after going through all that he has- his father’s treatment of him, drug abuse, mental illness, losing his brothers, the tension between him and Mike Love… the list goes on and on. All that, and yet he still managed to be one of most profound and influential musicians/producers/composers of modern times. He is indeed the “Mozart of rock” as he was introduced on the stage monday night. This leads into my next item of interest- we ran into none than Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo at the actual Brian Wilson show at the Ryman monday night. I saw him from behind and before I knew it, had blurted out “Robert Schneider!” He turned around and was very cool and friendly. I mentioned that I’d seen him perform as Marbles at the End opening for Of Montreal once and he was very appreciative. He seems to be in that sweet zone of moderate fame, where not too many people recognize him, but the ones that do aren’t obsessive about it, and it happens seldom enough that he’s appreciative and always willing to talk/take photos/etc… We took a photo with him and went on our separate ways. The show was nothing short of amazing, and from what I’ve heard from people who’d seen Brian before, it was actually better than other recent appearances. His band the Wondermints are absolutely phenomenal, and nailed every single note of the complex harmonies involved with both the Beach Boys material and Brian’s solo stuff. They recreated the sounds in the recordings (yes even the complex Pet Sounds material) with stunning aural accuracy, and the sound mix was almost flawless. I feel like it was worth every penny, and I got to photograph it for the Scene as well, which made it even better.
Frankly I’m a bit surprised this is public information, but as the article mentions, presedential codenames are a bit obsolete and unnecessary, given the strict security and hi-tech communications used by the secret service.
Barack Obama: Renegade
Michelle Obama: Renaissance
Malia: Radiance
Sasha: Rosebud
Diamonds made from tequila? Yes, indeed. If you told me that before I read this article I’d say you were full of shit, but it’s true.
The Phoenix Lander mission is officially over. They haven’t been able to communicate with it for a couple of days now, and the sunlight will only get dimmer and dimmer as the Martian winter sets in. This article seems to indicate that, while unlikely, the possibility does exist for Phoenix to re-awaken in October of 2009 when the Martian spring begins.
A Real Jurrasic Park? …. and Google phones
November 7, 2008
Not quite. But scientists in Japan at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology have apparently made a major breakthrough in cloning technology by cloning mice that have been frozen for 16 years. They say that with this technology it may be possible to resurrect extinct species such as wooly mammoths. WOW….. They can’t bring back dinosaurs, however, because there aren’t any dinosaur tissue specimens in existence that still contain viable DNA. Link: The Daily Galaxy
Apparently you can now turn your iPhone into a four track recorder. The app lets you record and mix four tracks using the iPhone’s built-in mic. I’d say the fact that it uses the mic would prevent you from being about to make a good quality recording, but still, this is amazing. My friend/bandmate Seth just got a new google phone. It’s called the G1 and apparently it’s only available through T-Mobile at the moment. It’s actually only the software that comes from Google- it’s called Android- the phone itself is made by T-Mobile. I only got to see it for a second last night, but it looked pretty amazing. It uses 3G or WiFi for internet, and you can open gmail easily and even gchat on it. I’ll have to check it out further, but it looks like the iPhone may have a legitimate competitor. I have Verizon, and an LG Voyager which I really like, but damn, why hasn’t Verizon “taken it to the next level” with a device that can compete with the iPhone and Google phone? I really don’t know enough about this deal, but let’s hope there’s no exculsivity contract between Google and T-Mobile to use Android on only their phones. I would like to see Android showing up on a Verizon phone soon.
Meteor shower Nov. 5-12/VOTE!
November 3, 2008
This year the Taurid meteor shower is expected to peak/be most viewable between Nov. 5th and Nov. 12th. This particular annual shower is sometimes referred to as “Halloween fireballs,” but this year the best time to view it will be a few days later. The moon will be waxing (more and more of it will be lit leading up to full moon), therefore the light interference from it will make it more difficult to see them going into mid-November. The Taurids are apparently known for being brighter and slower moving than average because the fragments are slightly larger than most other meteor shower fragments. (Though still much smaller than a pea, usually only the size of a grain of sand.) The Leonids will peak around Nov. 17th as always… though this year’s output is expected to be near the average of about 10-15 meteors per hour, which is pretty low. I may actually attempt to watch for the Taurids this year, as I’ve never actively watched for them before. Link: Space.com
NASA’s Phoenix lander (which landed in Mars’ northern polar region back in May) is starting to shut down its instruments as the Martian winter begins and the days (or sols as they’re called when referring to Mars) get shorter and shorter, resulting in less sunlight to power its heaters and computer. I’m not entirely sure if NASA plans to try to revive Phoenix when the Martian “spring” begins, or if it was even designed to do so, but let’s hope.
In the music world, the Jackson 5 will not be reuniting as Jermaine Jackson said last week. Micheal released a statement on Friday Oct. 31st saying that he was in the studio and would not be joining his brothers for a reunion. I seriously doubt a reunion would work without the support of Michael. Link: Billboard.com
Last but not least, if you do nothing else today, please GO VOTE! (You should have done it already, especially in TN where we don’t have to have a valid excuse to vote early!) Countless good men & women have died protecting our right to do so, and this election is by far the most important in many many decades. When compared to most of the world, we are blessed and lucky to even have the right to vote in the first place. Your voice in deciding who leads this country into the next 4 years is both a privilege and a responsibility. To relenquish that voice is a travesty.
HIBTB- new local release
November 2, 2008
First of all, thanks for the compliments, both here and in real life! Keep the feedback coming (both positive and negative), so that I know if what I’m doing here sucks or rules.
In some local music news, How I Became the Bomb is following the footsteps of both Glossary and Radiohead in that they’re shattering the traditions of how a band releases its music to its fans. They will be releasing their new material digitally in a series of 3 song chunks over the remainder of the year. The first of which, “Who Dares Wins,” will be available Nov. 5th for free download at www.howibecamethebomb.com. I had the pleasure of previewing the first track “Salvage Mission” last week when they released a special download code to the attendees of their free show at the rooftop venue/bar Aerial. (I wasn’t actually there but thanks to Lance Conzett for the code.) I must say I’m impressed by the production and look forward to hearing what the masterful John Baldwin at Lake Fever has done with them production-wise. They will also be releasing a video for the above track on Nov. 5th, and I from the still images I’ve seen from the shoot, it will be full of pure awesome. The artwork and web design are top-notch, though I would expect nothing less than that from Michael Eades of Yewknee.com, who assisted in both the release artwork and the website. The futuristic sci-fi/spacey theme is perfectly fitting of the new material and the overall vibe of the band in general, and I think these guys are creating a great marriage between sound and image that fits them perfectly.
In other not-quite-as-recent news, The Features have released their newest full-length “Some Kind of Salvation” on dual vinyl and it’s a masterpiece. I highly suggest you head over to Grimey’s and pick up a copy right now, or order it directly from the band online at www.thefeatures.com. The artwork and quality of the recording make it well worth the 20ish bones it’ll set you back. Not to mention that it comes with a digital download card that gives you access to the full album in DRM-free mp3 format. My interest in them had slightly waned over the past couple of years, but it has been fully renewed with this new album, and their awesome recent live shows. (Though they played a surprisingly short set at their album release show last week.)
One minor tidbit from the science world- Space Shuttle Endeavour has been approved for a Nov. 14th launch of mission STS-126 to the International Space Station. From nasa.gov:
“Endeavour’s main payload is a space-age moving van called Leonardo that is stuffed with new crew quarters and the other equipment needed to enlarge the station’s resident crew to six members. The equipment includes a filtering system designed to filter wastewater to make it potable.”
steve cross loves music and science 