Sun ejects biggest solar flare since last year- HD video
March 8, 2012
On March 7 at just after midnight UTC, the Sun released a massive solar flare and coronal mass ejection towards earth. The CME hit us a few hours ago and from what I can tell the aurorae are ongoing from it. You can keep up with the progress at Spaceweather.com. I’m sure there will be some awesome photos from it in the coming days. This one was powerful enough to disrupt satellite communications, but nothing major has happened so far, that I know of. The main reason for this post, though, was to share this space porn HD video of the actual flare. Just wait till they show the zoomed-in shot. It’s breathtakingly beautiful. Oh, and be sure you set it to full HD!
The Freakin Weekend/New PUJOL song on Spin
March 7, 2012
For the third year in a row, local music blog Nashville’s Dead is hosting their Freakin’ Weekend festival. It all kicks off tonight at The End with a special all-ages show featuring Screaming Females, Titus Andronicus, Diarrhea Planet, and No Regrets Coyote. Thursday night things jump across the street to Exit/In for The Greenhornes, PUJOL, Ranch Ghost, Denny & The Jets, and Dirty Dreams. Friday night’s show stays at Exit/In for Jeff the Brotherhood, Cy Barkley & the Way Outsiders, D. Watusi, Useless Eaters, and Fox Fun. Then we jump back across Elliston Place to The End for the finale on Saturday: Traditional Fools, Mikal Cronin, The Men, Heavy Cream, and Cannomen.
Also, returning from last year’s Freakin’ Weekend is the pop-up shop at Local Honey! Not only can you grab limited releases, vinyl, tapes, etc… from labels like Infinity Cat, Nashville’s Dead, Turbo Time, Third Man, Cass, Sebastian Speaks and many more, but on Friday & Saturday you can also catch great free day shows in the back lot as well! Head over to Nashville’s Dead for the full lineup+details. Major props to Ben Todd & his crew for making such a cool string of shows happen. They’ve really upped the ante this year by nailing a few bigger-name headliners, most notably The Greenhornes, whose rhythm section shares duties with The Raconteurs.
Another very related tidbit: Spin.com just debuted the first single from PUJOL’s first official full-length on Saddle Creek, DIY2K, via a free download. If this track is any indication, this is gonna be one phenomenal album. It drops June 5th.
A Few Good Shows: 3/2/12
March 2, 2012
This is some scary shit.
We have some crazy weather headed our way in middle TN (see above graphic!) so A Few Good Shows is super quick today. GO:
FRIDAY:
Vitalic Noise presents CRAVE at TAVERN in midtown: I will be DJing along with resident DJs Losici and Dali Drama. FREE, 21+ 10pm
Chancellor Warhol, Sam & Tre, Gummy Soul, and Ducko McFli @ 12th & Porter. 9pm $10
Cheap Time, Leather Nightmare, King Karl, Psychic Hotline @ The Other Basement. 8pm $???
SATURDAY:
Dr. Dog w/ Purling Hiss and PUJOL @ War Memorial Auditorium. 8pm $20
Bass Drum of Death, Cy Barkley & the Way Outsiders, Thelma & The Sleaze @The End. 9pm $10
Scale Model, A Secret Policeman’s Ball, You Blew It!, and Direct Effect @ Springwater. 10pm $5
Have a great weekend and BE SAFE TODAY! PAY ATTENTION TO MEDIA OUTLETS AND STAY ON TOP OF THE SEVERE WEATHER!!!
Remember back in the 90s and early aughts when SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) had those screensavers you could install that would process chunks of radio telescope data, looking for interesting signals? It would quietly download the data packets, process them, and send them back to SETI. That project has long since been canceled, but its successor is even cooler- SETI Live. The latest version of it just launched yesterday, and it literally allows you to visually analyze real data from the Allen Telescope Array. As I understand it, there are parts of the radio spectrum that are crowded by our own human-made signals. Even the most sophisticated computer software has a hard time distinguishing between something that’s manmade and something that’s extraterrestrial in origin, so they need human eyes to make the distinction. The project is part of Zooniverse, which has many other projects that allow the general public to take part in real scientific research and experiments. So sign yourself up and get to analyzing- you never know what you’ll find, especially now that they’re aiming the radio telescopes at stars known to have planets orbiting them!
Now sit back and enjoy this eye candy: yet another gorgeous timelapse video created from photos of earth at night taken from the International Space Station. I could literally watch stuff like this all day. There have been several of these created thus far, but this one just might be the best yet. It’s like crack for your eyes…
(Via Universe Today)
Kelley Anderson leaves Those Darlins
February 27, 2012
Copyright 2010 Steve Cross
Whoa. Just whoa. I just read on Brooklynvegan that Kelley Anderson has left Those Darlins. A bit of a shock to me, really, but at the same time, I’ve known Kelley (and all of them) for years and I know that Kelley is a very driven and ambitious woman with lots of talent. I’ve no doubt she’s got some awesome projects up her sleeve and I can see how the rigorous touring of Those Darlins may have become a bit too much. I mean, look what she did by founding the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp! That grew into Youth Empowerment through Arts & Humanities, one of the coolest non-profits around, and a cause well worth your support & time. I have no doubt that Those Darlins will power on ahead with the talents of Jessi, Linwood, and Nikki, plus whomever replaces Kelley. The above photo is from a documentary project in which I spent a few days on tour with them, as is the one below. These haven’t been published anywhere else, and I intend to keep it that way- so please don’t download and/or use these!
Copyright 2010 Steve Cross
A Few Good Shows: 2/24/12
February 24, 2012
A fun weekend is in store for Nashville show-goers. Behold my picks:
FRIDAY:
Majestico, Bad Cop, Fly Golden Eagle @ 12th & Porter. 9pm $7
Kidsmeal Revue #4 ft. Starkey, Heyoka, & Mochipet @ Exit/In. 9pm $10
Portlandia: The Tour @ Marathon Music Works. 8pm SOLD OUT (I think…)
SATURDAY:
Useless Eaters, Fancytramp, King Karl, Ancient Warfare @ Springwater. 10pm $5
Loss, Tijuana Goatride, Pallbearer, Alruane @ The End. 9pm $5
Boom Bap @ The 5 Spot. 9pm $10
On a side note, if you haven’t already, I highly suggest checking out this week’s Scene cover story on the Bruise Cruise. Excellent work from D. Patrick Rodgers and Adam Gold.
That’s all I got for ya. Have a great weekend!
Playing guitar in space
February 23, 2012
I’m always happy when the worlds of music and science collide in cool ways, as should be quite evident by the name of this blog. In reality science IS music, just like science is everything, but this is one instance where it’s especially cool. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is scheduled to be commander of the International Space Station, and he also happens to be a musician. It turns out music is actually an integral part of maintaining the psychological health of the astronauts, and so NASA decided to put an acoustic guitar on the station. This video from Space.com shows Hadfield explaining the guitar design itself, as well as the challenges and adaptations one has to make when playing in zero gravity. Very cool.
On a side note, I’m well aware of collective facepalm the science community is doing right now since the story broke yesterday that the apparent faster-than-light neutrinos discovered last fall may actually be due to a simple bad GPS cable connection. This is still, as far as I can tell, unconfirmed, so I’m holding off on posting anything in-depth. But I will say that I almost expected it to be something so trivial… We’ll see how it pans out.
Ranch Ghost 7″/By Lightning Video
February 22, 2012
Some cool things to report about two great new local bands:
- Ranch Ghost is awesome. They’re possibly my favorite “newish” local band. Their scrappy, catchy, jangly, hook-laden garage-pop hits all the right buttons on my musical palate. They have a limited edition 7″ that is available for pre-order through Jeffery Drag Records. You can stream the songs at their bandcamp. Love these guys soooo much.
- New local supergroup By Lightning! just played their album release show this past Saturday (my pics and the Spin review are up at the Cream) and followed it up by releasing a very cool animated music video for the first “lead single” off the record- “Weather.” Check it:
A Few Good Shows: 2/17/12
February 17, 2012
Nashville’s got options this weekend! Here’s some stuff I think is worth your time and money:
FRIDAY:
A Valentine’s Prom at the 5 Spot, benefitting Tennessee Teens Rock & Roll Camp ft. Jason Thomas, Jason Eskridge, Kansas Bible Company, and DJs Matt Smith & Chris Doubler. $4 if you dress the part, $7 otherwise. I will also be there doing a very prommy photobooth, so I recommend coming out to the east side and helping out a very special cause!
Caitlin Rose, Buffalo Clover, Evan P. Donohue @ The Basement. 9pm $8
The Clutters, Cy Barkley, Bad Touch @ Dino’s Bar & Grill. 9pm $???
My So-Called Band @ Mercy Lounge. 9pm $10
SATURDAY:
By Lightning album release show w/ Cortney Tidwell, Glossary @ The Basement. 9pm $5
Sex Cult, D. Watusi, Useless Eaters, Dirty Dreams @ Little Hamilton. 9pm $5??
Fly Golden Eagle, Little Viking, Forwards Edwards, Winnebago @ The Other Basement. 9pm $3
Screaming Females & Girl Scouts @ Grimey’s (in-store show) 4:30pm FREE
A quick history of beer in America
February 14, 2012
I haven’t posted anything about beer on here in a while. If you know me or have read this blog for a while, you know that I’m a homebrewer. I also love to evangelize craft beer as much as possible, because the typical American palate for beer is pitifully narrow and ignorant of all the amazing styles the world has to offer. The mass-produced, cheap style known to most Americans is known as “American adjunct lager.” The style uses a lot of corn and rice to cut down on the amount of barley used, and very minimal hopping. (Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors Light, etc…) It’s way too fizzy, watered down and bland for anyone who’s been introduced to the world of craft beer to enjoy. Once you taste REAL beer, you’ll never go back. So my message is this: go forth and find craft beer. It’s everywhere, even in convenience stores. It’s WELL worth the money. Here’s a quick, well-illustrated video that gives you a rundown of the history of brewing in America.
steve cross loves music and science 