Darlins get loved/Mars farts
January 19, 2009
Credit: Nathan Miller
Murfreesboro’s own Those Darlins are really starting to get some recognition, and are getting on some awesome gigs, many of which are in NYC. The photo links to a recent Brooklynvegan post about their show at Bowery Ballroom in NY with Langhorne Slim. I recommend scrolling down and reading the comments. Seems a few people are in love with lil’ Jessi darlin. Way to go darlins! TN is proud of you!
We Own This Town has been picking up again lately. Started by Doug Lehmann (of the Clutters), it started out in the wake of the demise of Nashville Zine, though Dough says he never intended it to replace the ‘Zine. Now Michael Eades (aka Yewknee) has all but taken it over, and added the help of Joe Baine Colvert, known for his work at Lake Fever Productions and for the Indie Ghetto, and Andrew J. Smithson, who I posted about recently regarding his new blog, indieocrity. Joe and Andrew are joining forces on WRVU 91.1 to start a new radio show which will complement the content of the website, much like Janet Timmons’ Out the Other. I look forward to seeing these guys bring this website back to life, as well as what they do with the radio show.
I found this really good footage of the US Airways plane crash in the Hudson river on Youtube. That pilot really does deserve the recognition he’s been given, because an engine-less jet airliner is basically like a tank with wings. Having always been interested in aviation (I WILL get my private pilot’s license one of these days), and also being the owner of a very realistic flight simulator on my computer (which allows you simulate a few different airliners and engine failures), I know how hard it is to glide one of these things into a safe landing without power.
Now for a little science. Lately there have been some news headlines claiming that we’ve found evidence of life on mars- methane in the atmosphere. In other words, mars farted and dumb newspapers got really excited about it. Those headlines are DEAD WRONG. At least about the life part… Yes we’ve been detecting methane in mars’ atmosphere since 2004. We also know that methane is quickly destroyed by UV radiation, and since there’s no comfy ozone layer in mars’ atmosphere to block it out, any methane on mars would be destroyed very soon after it was released from the surface. So, if we detect it, there must be constant source re-supplying it into the atmosphere. The source of the headlines is a press release saying that the source could be chemical, geological, or biological (life). Of course many news agencies jumped on that last one and made a really big to-do about it. It’s theoretically possible that current life could be the cause of the methane, but it’s only one of many. We still don’t have any conclusive evidence of life on mars. My personal opinion is that there is no life currently on mars, thus I don’t think that the methane is a result of such. I think it’s more likely that it’s coming from the polar regions- we’ve noticed that mars has little global warming of it’s own going on, and that warming is allowing methane trapped in the polar regions under layers of frozen CO2 to be released, much as the global warming occurring on earth has allowed methane under the shrinking permafrost to be released. My opinion is based on this blog post, btw. If it’s not that, I’d say the second best explanation would be some sort unseen geothermal activity. The Bad Astronomer does a really good job of explaining the facts related to this story, as always. Go check out his post if you want more details.
And finally… a serious dose of WTF?!?!?!?….. Joaquin Phoenix is becoming a rapper. Um… ok…
Zooey Deschanel’s Privates on a paper airplane in space
December 10, 2008
If you know me, you know that I’m a huge Zooey Deschanel fan. In fact, she’s #1 on my celebrity crush list. Even though her upcoming movie with Jim Carrey Yes Man looks like nothing more than a re-working of his older film Liar Liar, I am still eager to see it. She offers her voice to some synthpop tracks for the film, and it’s… well… just listen. Let’s just say she needs to stick to quirky indie-folk. Her voice is beautiful no matter what, but it’s just not well-suited for synthesizers.
The Japanese space agency JAXA is planning to fly a paper airplane out of the International Space Station, to the earth. The planes will be made of a specially treated paper that can withstand extreme heat and water. Yes, even a little paper airplane will create significant heat upon re-entering the atmosphere. Remember that it’s being launched from the ISS, which is in orbit, meaning that it will be traveling at around 17,000 mph. If my knowledge of physics is correct, since it’s so light it will have less inertia, and thus slow down much faster than say, a spaceship or a meteor… so it shouldn’t have to withstand the heat for very long. My question is this- do they really expect it to be found? The vast majority of the planet is covered by water, so the chances are that it will land in the middle of the ocean and never seen again. Link via Kottke.org.
UPDATE: Apparently the launch has been scrubbed due to concerns that the planes might collide with a satellite or end up as space junk. Link. It was a cool idea!
In 1960 Joe Kittinger set records for highest jump (102,800 feet), fastest unpowered flight (he fell at 614 mph!), and several others. This guy is the definition of badass. I’m not sure about the speed, though, because if you listen during the video clip, the narrator says 400+ mph… but the caption says 614. Oh well. Badass nonetheless! Check out the video clip on LiveScience.
In Nashville music news- The Privates are apparently recording a new EP at Battletapes. This brings me great joy. The Privates don’t get to play much, or even record much, due to the fact that they’re essentially a “supergroup” and all of them (except Dave) are in other bands that tour, record, etc… way more than they do. I’m really interested to see how Jeremy’s production style will influence their sound. They’ve done everything in the past with Jason Bulluck over at Lake Fever Productions (not that that’s a bad thing at all!) so it’ll be nice to have a little change in their sound, production-wise. I leave you with this hilarious video from one of their recording sessions, via Nashville Cream.
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:
steve cross loves music and science 