December 25, 2006
James Brown is not immortal
I know we suspected that he might not be, but learning it from the BBC at 1AM in Antarctica made it a particularly large surprise. The 20th Century must finally be over.
December 04, 2006
November 29, 2006
iPod sales to North Korea banned
Just take a look at the Korean peninsula at night. The leadership drive BMWs and Cadillacs, they drink fine cognac and scotch, and the people starve. Read about the plan here. More Hennessey for the rest of us.
Something I wish I had gotten involved with when I had a chance
new materials and physical measurements for better acoustic instruments. Had students demonstrating cheap, good, and excellent violins in class back at Penn State. You could hear, feel, and measure the differences. Beautiful stuff.
November 08, 2006
40 years ago today...
...Paul McCartney died. "If you think the harmony, is a little dark and out of key, you're correct, there's nobody there."
October 16, 2006
iPod exchange
From a slashdot discussion:
>> A stranger trying to shove his ear-waxy headphones into me is a total turn off, by the way. And who's
>> to say they don't have a heroin-tipped needle in them or something worse (like AIDS).
> AIDS transmission via earwax? Please get off the net, Senator Frist.
You do him an injustice. this is a serious form of the disease, called hearing AIDS.
This had not previously happened to me until today. Very odd.
More suggested uses of the ipod can be found here.
And CBGBs closed too! More on this later...
September 28, 2006
The Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra
Plays on despite power failures, political and sectarian violence, a culture of anti-music propagated by the religious extremists, and the general lack of security.
August 22, 2006
July 27, 2006
July 25, 2006
For some reason these two articles worked well together
Okay, maybe it seems weird, but here goes:
- How Jell-O(R) killed the dinosaurs.
- Body parts found in nude dancer's apartment.
- And I'm going to go ahead and add in one additional link. Hypoxic devices may be restricted in sports.
July 11, 2006
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Syd Barrett, certainly the source of anything interesting in the whole Pink Floyd universe, died a couple of days ago. The news was just reported.
July 06, 2006
Rennie and Brett in the Minneapolis paper
My old friends Rennie and Brett Sparks have a little band called the Handsome Family. And they're doing pretty well with it.
June 14, 2006
June 05, 2006
June 01, 2006
Garrison Keillor in the NYT
An interesting interview which seemed more interested in interior decorating than in the Praire Home Companion show. Or the upcoming movie.
May 24, 2006
May 10, 2006
May 02, 2006
April 25, 2006
Finnish folk music
Lordi is representing Finland in the Eurovision festival. This is the event that launched Abba and Celine Dion and is one of the campiest things actually broadcast by big television corporations. Think of it as public access for really dreadful music. Wikipedia waxes nearly poetic on the discrete charm of Eurovision.
April 20, 2006
Sonic Youth and Calvin Coolidge
The new additions to the Library of Congress's recordings of significant national interest. What a job! Deciding valuable recordings, preserving sound culture.
April 12, 2006
How Ronald Reagan invented gangsta rap
By illegally funding the Contras through cocaine imports into the US which funded the labels and on and on...
It's a beautiful figure. The interconnectedness of politics, drugs, and rap.
April 04, 2006
Dancing is not constitutionally protected
And the number of cities or towns that allow couples to freely dance is down from ~1000 in the 1960s to about 300 today. Didn't Emma Goldman say something about this once?
March 30, 2006
Mila on the Morning Show (Minnesota Public Radio)
And see the video here. Yup, video of the radio performance.
March 22, 2006
Mila pod cast
Check it out... This is leading up to their April 1st CD release party at the Walker Art Center sculpture garden. See their web site for more details.
March 08, 2006
Boy George cocaine charge dropped
And now you know what he looks like after all these years since Karma Chameleon.
March 06, 2006
Barnard Park music
Ah, news from near where I grew up. Beautiful Barnard Park in Hartford, CT. Drugs, prostitutes, and now a proposal to use classical music to reduce crime. Play Bach and soothe the inner beast. Beethoven and reduce the need for ultraviolence. There's also the beginnings of a discussion of this on plastic.com.
March 01, 2006
February 27, 2006
"Wake me up before you go go"
George Michael found slumped over the steering wheel of his car and arrested for drug possesion. Class C drug. From the British classification, it looks like it was probably pot.
February 24, 2006
A new threat to freedom!
Morrissey? Interviewed by the FBI and British intelligence? "Hang the DJ!"
Meanwhile, we have Iranian mullahs explaining how the US blew up some religious buildings in a country we invaded because we lied and said that they were involved in blowing up some buildings here.
February 21, 2006
Live Aid || Dia Evil
Okay, so I had an idea this morning for new musical benefit concert. It's partly tied to Live and Evil being mirror images of each other, and partly to the news that Mladic might be arrested soon. So here's the idea:
- Evil Aid, a benefit from, for, and by dictators and their top minions
- Increasingly, former dictators are not having a chance to live in Paris or the Upper East Side, they're being called in front of courts, and thrown (gently) behind bars. They have legal expenses! Needs. And feelings too.
- Can't you imagine Idi Amin belting out The Rainbow Connection? ("Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, The lovers, the dreamers and ME!")
- Oh, Idi Amin is dead?
- Okay, so Milosevic sings the Ethnic Cleansing Blues ("Woke up this morning, felt around for my shoes That's when I knew I had them old Ethnic Cleansing Blues..."
- We find some of the Duvalier clan to come together and sing Ca Plane Pour Moi (King of the divan)
- Fujimori and Kabila do a tender duet at the piano (No, I will not name the song!)
- Generalismo Franco is still dead
- Kissinger and Pinochet together again for a poignent take on Ain't Misbehavin' ("I'm savin' my love for you.")
- Hey, Iraqi Interim Authority, can we borrow President Hussein? Just for a couple of songs? (Check out the music videos here! We definitely need his production company at least.)
- And for the final number, as always, we have everyone join in singing We are the World (World Dictators 'R Us)
Send royalty checks to Mike DuVernois directly.
February 16, 2006
Freedom of Choice?
The Devo spawning Dev2.0, the Disney version, is really too weird for words. It pretty much has to come down to someone needing cash from the Mickey Mouse.
February 07, 2006
You know how sometimes you go click on a link...
...and, presto, there it is. And it's really quite strange. And you scroll down, and it gets stranger. And it reminds you that Joy Division was a really long time ago, though I suppose not as long ago as Hank Williams. Senior. So, you click on the mp3s and listen while, oh my god!, the music plays and you read of Tuva and stolen passports. Then you look around on the site, reviews of Captain Beefheart in a Tuvan style. Feynman pretty much has to be to blame for making Tuva hip again. Kyzyl! The throat singing is amazing stuff, but covering the Rolling Stones? They just did the halftime show at some Bowling match or other. And got censored. Painted black. Black as black. The link already!
Music for today, tomorrow, and last Tuesday.
Sample lyrics from KAMGALANYR KUZHU-DAA BAR (We have protection force.):
Yenisei river's banks are full of natural richness, our amazing country has protection force.
Yenisei runs and kicks his banks by his waves, if an enemy invades we have a lot of power to destroy him.
In taiga there is a lot of gold and other richness, in the north and south we have brother countries.
In the south and north parts of taiga there are a lot of minerals and furs, -- we have the powerful USSR giving a happy life to us.
KALDAK-KHAMAR
music - trad arr. A. Kuvezin
lyrics - Salchak Toka
"The name of a mountain pass through Tannu-Ola range at the south part of Tuva. In 1933-1934 the road from Kyzyl (capital) to region on Mongolian border was built; and on this pass for one year people were digging using only simple tools like picks, spades, hand-trolleys and enthusiasm. Now it is road of state importance connecting Siberia, Tuva and Mongolia. The lyrics written by first General Secretary of Communist Party of then-independent state of "Tannu Touva". Salchak Toka, leader of the Government and also one of the great writers of classic Tuvan literature - a Soviet Union State Prizewinner. This song about wish and striving to dig out Kaldak-Khamar pass, to build a smooth road and to rush by an iron devil-car like a kite."
February 06, 2006
January 18, 2006
January 17, 2006
January 11, 2006
Instead of reading Frey...
Wasted, by Black Flag
I was so wasted
I was a hippie
I was a burnout
I was a dropout I was out of my head
I was a surfer
I had a skateboard
I was so heavy man, I lived on the strand
I was so wasted
I was so fucked up
I was so messed up
I was so screwed up I was out of my head
I was so jacked up
I was so drunk up
I was so knocked out, I was out of my head
I was so wasted
I was wasted.
And save the "Million Little Pieces" of money.
January 05, 2006
Derek Bailey RIP
He passed away on Christmas Day at age 75. In my opinion, he was the great guitar improvisor of the last few decades and will be especially remembered for extending the guitar technique. Had the wonderful chance to hear him play twice and once sit and play with him in a workshop setting. Aside from his musicianship, he had an excellent reputation for supporting and assisting younger musicians getting started, and there's also Incus Records that Bailey helped start back in the 1970s that is still one of England's best independent jazz and improv labels.
Jazz Times tends to have good obits. Which, in jazz, seem to be pretty frequent these days.
While you're thinking abour Bailey, also check out his long-time collaborator Gavin Bryars's web pages. Yes, there is more to his music than either the "Jesus blood" or Titanic pieces.
December 19, 2005
December 13, 2005
November 23, 2005
It's Industrial music day in Swaziland!
But they said that there was something that got to them more than the words of the songs. And that was the beat, the beat! Louder and faster, louder and faster, louder and faster...
November 22, 2005
November 11, 2005
New viruses exploit Sony's rootkit
Though I hesitate to call those CDs music, it does seem to be the best fitting category. Did Sony really think that people wouldn't notice their systems being hijacked? Yet another reason to use Macs or Linux though.
November 10, 2005
November 04, 2005
October 26, 2005
Sweet blond twin white power musicians?
Prussian Blue. In another few years. .. "I struggled with alcohol and meth until I found my Lord Jesus. My life changed that very day, and I left my hatred behind me forever. Praise the lord." And what horrible music!
October 24, 2005
October 17, 2005
A test of the web's connections to an individual blog.
So, after seeing web hit statistics for a particular music website, I've been curious as to how many (non-commenting) folks click through my blog entries. As they once said, curiousity did kill the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
Here are some thoughts:
- Was Osama bin-Laden killed in the Pakistan earthquake? Were his deputies?
- If that happened, would we ever be able to live down the George Bush talks with Jesus Christ and orders up the natural phenomena type of paranoia, or faith depending on beliefs?
- In that case, was Katrina a punishment for the sin and depravity of New Orleans and the girls gone wild videos?
- In Brazil, there's an all bondage television channel.
- Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Will they be indicted this week?
- What are other good keywords that will make search engines happy? Fnord.
- Hurricane Wilma, the Bigfoot Conference, Dubya, GM and its unions, and bird flu spreading around the world in the news today.
And here are some music links:
- Dead Can Dance official website. From all reports, the October 12th Chicago show was excellent.
- Need a Hurdy-Gurdy? Or other musical instrument you can't find at the local Target store? (Target is now stocking trumpets, guitars, clarinets, flutes, electric basses, and drums.)
- Ezra Pound's great classic of the same name.
- A local, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Balkan singing group. Brings the melodies, and intriquing harmonies, of the musical cross-roads to the listener. Their all-Bulgaria CD is expected soon. Plus, they'll be on Prairie Home Companion this weekend! (The 22nd & 23rd of October.)
- Metal Machine Music. Where to start with this? Another former WREK person? Or we can look at a review (for 8-track!!!) and reference back to Lester Bangs who tried to popularize this Lou Reed album. Or this review of the reissued CD. Hey Kathy, do you still have my vinyl of this? Or did you pawn it a decade ago? Been enjoying the CD, but it would be a wonderful slab to still own. And of course, Wikipedia has an article on it. Check out Rolling Stone's negative review of the album. Or a view on the 25th anniversary of the album.
Lester Bangs en francais?
From this French website, you can download an mp3 of a French translation of Lester Bang's classic bit (from Psychotic Reactions...) Iggy Pop, Blowtorch. This whole thing sets off so many weirdness buttons, it isn't funny. But of course it is funny.
October 13, 2005
October 11, 2005
October 07, 2005
October 05, 2005
Do they know it's Halloween?
The parody. With Beck and Thurston Moore? A novelty record for our times. Hmmm...make that a novelty CD.
September 28, 2005
Mr. Johnny Cash
The Ring of Fire musical...coming to Broadway! Fortunately, they do not plan on putting Mr. Cash on stage. He's dead.
September 22, 2005
U2's first visit to Minneapolis
With little mention of how awful they are today. I think we all have some nostalgia for Boy, and October, and War, and wonder just how it all went wrong from there.
September 12, 2005
Tunes of late
What has Mike been listening to lately? What music has he been enjoying? Well, in a fit of U2 bashing, I listened to Negativland and their take on I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (see also, the Letter U and the Numeral 2) along with U2's Boy and War. Putting those old cassettes on the stereo reminded me of how low-fi cassettes are/were and also that U2 didn't suck initially. They may never have been good musicians, but the band that put out War and Boy was a quality act.
Swell Maps, what should I say about Swell Maps? Been listening to Jane in Occupied Europe all morning today. (Discography of Swell Maps, from Nikki Sudden's webpages.) Good quality stuff. The CDs are back in print...
The Clash and Duran Duran in the same magazine...
If you missed some of the great post-punk acts, there are two indepensible resources for you. (Well, there are probably more than that, but who is counting?) Trouser Press zine and their published guides, which are now available online, and Rip it Up and Start Again (Guardian review, PR from the publisher, order it from amazon.co.uk (find your own link), or wait for the US edition which is rumored to have sections deleted from it) which is an amazing piece of journalism.
Should I praise the Mila Vocal Ensemble again? They'll be back on Praire Home Companion pretty soon and appeared on stage with Garrison at the St. Paul Labor Day Picnic. Will post an update when the PHC appearance is confirmed.
I should also put in a pitch for CD Baby. It's a resource for distributing independent CDs inexpensively. Good stuff, good folks, deserving of our business. They have audio samples for most tracks.
Also visit Rogaria, home of the Orkerstar Bez Ime.
Schoenberg Concerto for Cello has been sort of an intriguing classical highlight recently. It's very different from the serialism you would expect from him. Catchy somehow.
And the Cassandra Complex...In Search of Penny Century... Satan, Bugs Bunny, and Me. Other than the discography there isn't much info out there on the web. I suspect that there may not be all that many fans of Moscow, Idaho.
- Interview from 1996.
- And an entry in an Italian history of rock music...
- A random review.
- Metropolis Records bio listing.
- Rodney Orpheus has a web page as well.
September 10, 2005
Wolfram discovers algorithmic music
Interesting, though self-agrandizing. As ringtones, they have merit, as music, much less so. IMHO.
September 07, 2005
Apple's announcement?
We'll see what it is. Since my Treo 90 died (in a downpour), I have been thinking about a new PDA. Maybe PDA/phone. Maybe PDA/phone/iPod?
August 23, 2005
Outlawing lip syncing?
Turkmenistan's president bans lip synching. This follows bans on opera, ballet, gold teeth, and restrictions on long hair and beards. Saparmurat Niyazov's cult of personality has always been a bit weird, but seeing lip synching as a threat is sure evidence of deep thinking about the future direction of his nation. All hail Kibo!
The fearless leader has also banned recorded music on TV and at live events. I'm starting to see a trend here! In fact, "radio and television programmes are dominated by performances of his own poems and philosophical writings set to music." Must be a fun country.
Ah yes, there are ongoing efforts to Turkmenify the population. They recently celebrated Melon Day and the fearless leader had a 300 square meter rug commissioned entitled "The 21st century: the epoch of the great Saparmurat Niyazov." That's ego! (Of course, by writing this, I have virutally eliminated the possibility of visiting Turkmenistan without getting to visit a finely crafted prison cell for a couple of days. Darn!) On the other hand, they granted citizenship to 16,000 refugees from neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan so they are at least responsible in that way.
Are there other good Saparmurat Niyazov stories? Post them here!
Looking at the Wikipedia, there's also the closure of libraries and hospitals, replacing doctors with army constripts, building an ice palace in the middle of the desert, the statues of himself, the super-expensive mosque, and banning makeup for TV announcers. Sounds like a lower-rent, maybe somewhat friendlier, version of North Korea.
Oh yeah, and from the opposition website some English language news on Turkmenistan including banning converted LHD vehicles.
The government site is pretty interesting as well. The Visa application form is available online.
Hootie and the Blowfish
Though I hesitate to call it music...they perform at a Wal-Mart! The pathos is palpable.
August 22, 2005
Moog passes away
BBC obit. In his honor, I will play the theremin tonight. If you don't have a Moog or a theremin at home, you can take a listen to Wendy/Walter Carlos. Downloadable if you don't have the vinyl...
August 02, 2005
July 24, 2005
Myron Floren Obituary
He could play accordian and direct the band with his elbows. He was best known as accordion player for the Lawrence Welk Show. He joined in the 1950s and the show survives in syndication after its 1982 end.
Also check out Accordian-O-Rama. Sales, service, and supplies.
Lots of interest! It seems as though the show meant a lot to many people...
July 20, 2005
The Moon
Google moon is now available. It's a pretty impressive use of mapping software and a web front-end and a nice tribute to the 20th anniversary of the landing. Also check out this site which also allows you to explore the landing sites. Watch for the lunar rover trails... And don't forget Earth Google as well.
Also on a science subject...there's an attempt at a new version of the periodic table of the elements which looks cool, but isn't obviously useful for anything. Then, thinking about the elements, we also have the amazing flash animation of Tom Lehrer's The Elements and the periodic table of sexual positions.
July 19, 2005
July 18, 2005
1/2 billion itunes store songs
With the 1/2 billionth coming up, shouldn't people have had the decency to buy better songs? Sunday, at 2:44PM EST, Amy Greer of Lafayette, Indiana bought Faith Hill's Mississippi Girl to win.
July 07, 2005
Didgeridoo playing physics
Instead of talking about the bombs in London, let's look to a study of how skilled players utilize their muscles to play the didgeridoo.
June 24, 2005
Glastonbury is wet again
Looks even worse than the last few years. People swimming to their tents. Yuck!
June 16, 2005
Mila Vocal Ensemble on Praire Home Companion again this weekend
(Taken from Mila's webpages.)
Saturday, June 18, 5 p.m. Central Time, NPR affiliates worldwide
A Prairie Home Companion Broadcast live from Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, IL
Mila is honored to once again join Garrison Keillor and the cast and crew of A Prairie Home Companion for a live broadcast from the 2005 Ravinia Festival. Listen in for some new songs: a sneak preview of our upcoming fall CD. Visit prairiehome.publicradio.org for details. Click here to find your NPR affiliate station.
June 15, 2005
Documentary on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
"The Alchemists of Sound" tells the tale of how a bunch of geeks brought musique concrete from the (French) theorists to the television screen. Wikipedia entry. Catch it if you can...
June 05, 2005
Clogging rather than blogging
Mila is playing Tuesday evening, June 7th, in Forest Lake (just up I-35 from the Twin Cities. They're going on after The Lake Country Clog Dancers. See you there...
Also, they'll be on Praire Home Companion on the weekend of June 18th.
May 26, 2005
Bud Foote, RIP
One of my favorite professors from when I was an undergraduate, Bud Foote, has passed away. He taught the relatively infamous English Lit class on Science Fiction and is one of the promoters of Science Fiction within the academy. When he retired he also donated his 8000 volume collection of books and magazines to the university library.
- Obituary in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- His book collection, with other donations/expansions.
- A little bit about the donation.
- Bud being interviewed on CNN about 2001 as 2001 began.
- A good interview by Bud Foote of Kim Stanley Robinson.
- Review of his book placing Twain into the history of science fiction writing, and in particular creating the "two-way time travel" motif.
- The book, The Connecticut Yankee in the Twentieth Century, appears to be available online here in full text.
- His other book is a chapbook of poetry.
- Haven't found anything online of the Great Speckled Bird articles or music (though he is credited on Pete Seeer's Clearwater).
"Never argue with a man who is convinced the earth is flat. You have thought about why it is round for maybe five minutes. He spends every waking minute thinking up arguments that it is flat, and he believes if only he could convince everyone, then the problems of the world would be solved" - Bud Foote
May 16, 2005
"Piano Man" in England (Okay, I admit it, I don't have a TV and 89.3 has gotten me listening to the news a whole lot less, so I haven't been overloaded with coverage of this)
Guy in his 20s or 30s is found on a beach, soaking wet, in a suit and tie. He is an excellent piano player, but doesn't speak. No one has yet identified him. Hugh Grant to star in the film adaptation.
May 03, 2005
666 vs. 616
For the heavy metal fans and Heinlein readership, the number of the beast might not be 666. Of course this is predicated on a whole belief system and so-forth. Okay, I won't go into that...