This week’s HV cast is for Poetry Month. From his collection Various Atmospheres, Alex Caldiero performs “Poetry is Wanted Here” (mp3 2:58):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Caldiero

We’re starting to build up quite a steaming pile of slideshows… I mean, streaming pile, at YouTube:

I’m visiting a friend in Jacksonville, watching his son pitch for Edward Waters College, “a private Historically Black College.” The stadium, James P. Small Field, was once home to the Jacksonville Red Caps of the Negro League Baseball team, and before that the spring training camp for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Satchel Page, Hank Aaron, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth all played here.

Now the field sits in the middle of a residential African-American section of town, and is a bit of a community park. Neighborhood people wander in and out enjoying some college ball on a sunny Florida afternoon.

There a DJ in the stands mixing on a makeshift home stereo, set up on a table in the front row. Each EWC team member has his own song, which the DJ plays as each player comes to bat. And in between we’re treated to a mix of rap and soul. All above is a long way of saying, that’s where and how I hear this killer dance tune. So lace up your dancing sneakers on, it’s the Mississippi Cha Cha Slide, AKA Stomp by Mixx Master Lee (mp3):

Astute observers of mutlicultidancicology will note this updates Casper’s all-over-utube Slide. Ya Cha Cha wit yur left. Now Stomp.

Music to learn Morse Code by, set to song by Andrew Crawford (mp3 2:51):

Make your own Morse Code Music.

An HV video by Trent Harris: Carl Sandburg reads his poems and wonders “What is Poetry?,” with music by Skyward and audio by Barrett Golding:

As head of the HV radio project, I’m always pleased to get such promising emails about ongoing productions — this one’s about Ann & Kara’s (w/ Rick Moody) Song & Memory series:

From:   Ann Heppermann
Subject: finally a fucking awesome story!
Date: 	April 25, 2007 10:44:32 AM MDT
To:   Barrett Golding
Cc:   Kara Oehler

Hey Barrett,

We got a fucking awesome story from Anthony Bourdain about his most
memorable song from childhood, 96 Tears.  He told us how he lost his
virginity to a stripper named Panama up in the Catskills. And
pyrotechnics, and drugs...

He actually said this phrase "This song...was a direct line to
heroin." And not in a sad sappy kind of way, but, fuck yeah, i was
going to be cooler than all you other kids.

OK.  we're just really excited.

Later,
ann and kara

Stark Effect makes music sampling found-sound. The sound is found on other folks’ computers with the filename: “mic in track,” which is the title of his CD and free downloads. Try “Testing 1-2-3” (3:05):

Sez Stark:

A “mic in track” is a recording made on a PC using MusicMatch Jukebox, a music utility packaged with many new PC’s that allows the user to record from the microphone input of the PC’s sound card and save the recording in mp3 format. The default filename is “mic in track” followed by a number.

If that user also happens to be running a file-sharing program (WinMX, Audiognome, Kazaa, etc.), and shares the directory in which the mic in track is stored, then these personal recordings can be easily downloaded from the user’s computer. The vast majority of them are either silent or uninteresting, but many are like Christmas presents giftwrapped in nondescript serial numbers. They represent unique examples of audio vérité.

BTW, Stark Effect is aka Dr. David Dixon, CalPoly physics prof. “The Stark effect is the shifting and splitting of spectral lines of atoms and molecules due to the presence of an external static electric field.”

‘Case you never hear the cut-up mix-artiste People Like Us (aka, Vicki Bennett), a huge hunk of their catalogue is offered as mp3s. One of my fave PLU trax is “What’s Love?” (5:03):

Here’s another PLU (w/ Matmos & Wobbly) I heard on a recent Some Assembly Required podcast, “Arkansas Explorer” (5:13):