Sometimes, the things scientists do are just so cool that they make me laugh out loud. This web-based appfrom JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) uses the topological data collected by their Kayuga Lunar Orbiter to create music, much the same way a record player reads the ridges on a LP.
I was just going through the Youtube playlists I've put together for YiEMB, and it is heartbreaking to see how many videos have been pulled down because the copyright owners have such a dim view of free advertising. Well, I wonder how long it will be until the three videos featured today are made to vanish!
The first song is "Ghosts" by newcomer Laura Marling, a young musician whose vocals and lyrics jumped out at me while listening to the SXSW wrap-up show. Following her is Bat for Lashes performing her single "Sleep Alone" live on Later...with Jools Holland. Eerie and beautiful, Bat for Lashes (real name Natasha Khan) has a voice whose ethereal quality lends itself vocalizing the dark fantasies in everyone's souls. Lastly there is Somalia-born rapper K'naan with his ode to his homeland, "Soobax". I just downloaded his album "The Dusty Foot Philosopher" from eMusic, and man, is it good!
While I am not much of a fan of Hulu for a variety of inconsequential reasons (not the least of which is that there is shite to watch on TV anway), and I certainly do not foresee great things coming of Jimmy Fallon's ascension to late night talk show stardom, I have to say that this clip of Paul Simon backed by Late Night's house band The Roots, with Antibalas on horns, performing "Late in the Evening", justifies the existence of both.
How long until this beautiful thing is destroyed by small-minded people too concerned with the illusion of control and money? Seeqpod is a multimedia search engine that focuses solely on music, and uses some heavy-duty algorithms to seek connections between disparate items. What this means is that Seeqpod catalogs what music is posted to which websites, and then lists those links for you to listen to in Seeqpod's player.
That isn't really important though. What is important is that using Seeqpod allows you to search out music from across the web, compile it into a playlist, and embed the player in a blog post to share it with a friend! The downside is that should any of those websites get told to pull the music by a short-sighted copyright holder (*cough*Sony/BMG*cough* *cough*Universal Music*coughcough*), those links will die, and the playlist will become broken.
That is a risk I am willing to take, though. So here it is, the first Bureaucracy of One Seeqpod playlist, featuring four songs by folk legend Stan Rogers.
Some 19 year old genius in Australia took sound bites from the Alice in Wonderland movie and remixed them into a trancy-trippy little song that is just mesmerizing! I already downloaded the mp3, and am listening to the other tracks on Last.fm.
I am not repairing. My loss is irreparable. I am not replacing. What I lost is irreplaceable. I am not rebuilding. All that is left is ash and smoke.
No, I am Living, and this blog will document my Life.
But enough pretentious bullshit! I went to see Charlotte Martin last night, and I have pictures! And damn, such a big voice from such a tiny
woman! Reminds me of when I got to see Heather Nova in 2002. There is
another woman whose tiny size belies her beautiful voice.