Year: 2007/Archives

Montana Wants Wackos

This was sent me years ago, when MT was home to assorted newsworthy wackos. Not sure of the source other than it was a Billings radio station, “Come to Montana” (1:05 mp3):

Radio Dial A’cappella

Recorded by a friend off South American radio, vocalists unknown, “radio dial tuning a’cappella” (1:00 mp3):

Bush Pardons Entire GOP

SF Chronicle columnist reports “Bush Pardons Entire GOP:”

Prez “pre-emptively” saves all Repubs from becoming “prison bitches.”
Dems: “Can he do that?”

Recording Skype

Doug Kaye of The Conversations Network has posted on his Blogarithms an in-depth guide to Recording Skype Interviews, which he sez can now exceed the audio quality of a high-end telephone hybrid.

Earth Ear CD Sale

EarthEar’s Giant Fantabulous Yard Sale has CDs for $3-5 by master field-recordists such as Chris Watson, Bernie Krause, and Gordon Hempton, along with enviro sound collage music by Annea Lockwood, Paul Winter, the Thai Elephant Orchestra, and lots more.

Mark Z. Danielewski

One of three mp3s on an old post at Salon.com Audio, Mark Z. Danielewski performs from his book House of Leaves to music by his sister Poe, off of Haunted, “Hey Pretty” (3:50 mp3):

Brian Briggs- Brian Damage

For a while I’ve hoped for a CD-release or mp3s of Brian Briggs classic 1980 wave record Brian Damage — both my copy and that of the local station, KGLT-Bozeman, have gone missing. Well, wait and ye shall find (motto of the Internet?), it’s now up at the Play It Again, Max blog, “featuring out-of-print LPs never issued on CD.” Lotsa great tunes on the album, but the KGLT fave was this story song about a Frankie & Moe’s fast & furious game of chicken: train vs. scooter, “See You on the Other Side” (3:33 mp3):

Citizenship Test

Could you pass the U.S. citizenship test?; July 4 Special at MSNBC.com. An online quiz of twenty questions from the civics test the Citizenship and Immigration Services (INS) during the naturalization interview.

Heat (extended) cast

This week’s HV cast for a hot Summer’s day— It is 120°. The birds and animals, and even insects hide. We hear the the words, thoughts and sounds of desert residents: writer Charles Bowden, the Tohono O’odham poet Ofelia Zepeda, and ambient composer Steve Roach, whose composition “Slow Heat” scores the piece. A story by Jeff Rice, “Heat- extended mix” (7:30 mp3):

Where Does a Militant Shop for a Good Ski Mask?

Slate’s Explainer has the skinny on the fashion ins and outs of buying a good one that reps your clan, creed or splinter group. See the video.

The only time I was able to ever wear one was while actually skiing…while it was below zero. I even had (briefly) a neoprene model that worked rather well at 30 below but felt slimy inside after a few runs. (The skis wouldn’t work well anyway since it was too cold to create the micro-thin layer of melt water that you actually glide on). So, in a way, I’ve gotta hand it to these wild ‘n’ crazy guys with their AK-47s and a desire for anonymity/clan identity/scary-looking-motherf’erness. That is badass when the average high for July and August is 91 F. (But the humidity is low, my friend).

Frontier Psychiatrist

My bud and WFMU Blogger, Lukas posted the source of many of the samples in The Avalanches‘ classic audio collage “Frontier Psychiatrist.” They appropriated a 1959 comedy piece of the same name by Canadians Wayne and Shuster, “Frontier Psychiatrist” (mp3 at WFMU Blog). The Avalanches’ vid for their song is about as good as MTV ever got, “Frontier Psychiatrist:”

The 365 Days Project at WFMU also recently posted one of the most heavily sampled LPs of all time: “Virginia Belmont’s Famous Singing & Talking Birds.”

Bong Hits for Harvey

Oldie but goodie Paul Harvey cut-up (1:24 mp3):

Editor unknown. I’m guessing Bose and fire-alarm commercials provided the audio fodder. There’s a musical vers at DIYmedia.net – Paul Harvey Collage.

Botched USA Paramilitary Police Raids

Cato Institute has a Google map of SWAT and paramilitary police raids in USA where innocents were harmed: Botched Paramilitary Police Raids, along with their policy paper “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids.”

(Found at Center for Citizen Media: Blog.)

Rush Sings I’m A Nazi

Posted at DIYmedia.net among some other Rush Limbaugh Collages is a cut-up musician calling himself Rush Limbaugh Hater with “Rush Sings I’m A Nazi” (3:41 mp3 | lyrics):

(Heard at Some Assembly Required.)

Kinetic Sculptures of Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen “is an artist and kinetic sculptor living and working in Holland. He builds large works which resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the wind on the beaches of the Netherlands. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering.”

From the videos at YouTube, “Theo Jansen- Wind Art:”

(Found at WFMU’s Blog.)

The Crime: Journalism

Thoroughly depressing article on an Al Jazeera camerman who’s been incarcerated at Gitmo for nearly six years: “Prisoner 345,” Columbia Journalism Review.

iTunes U

Inside the newly released iTunes 7.3 is an online University. iTunes U, sez Apple, is “giving higher education institutions an ingenious way to get audio and video content out to their students.” Already a dozen colleges offer course materials and podcasts via this new feature inside iTunes Store (link launches iTunes). Find out about “The Future of the Internet” (iTunes) from Stanford University, view the virgin “Mary in Folk Art and Belief” (iTunes) at Otis College of Art and Design, or figure out “Physics for Future Presidents” from UC Berkeley

The Frug

Just ran across this ol’ KGLT fave, a killer tune by Rilo Kiley, from the movie “Desert Blue” (and hey, I think that’s Randy from My Name is Earl in the vid), “The Frug:”

The Pledge cast

This week’s HV cast for Independence Day— People with different regional, ethnic, and national accents recite and reflect upon the single-sentence, century-old poem “The Pledge of Allegiance.” A story by Barrett Golding, “The Pledge” (5:23 mp3):

UFO Encounters

The 365 Days Project, hosted at WFMU’s Blog, posted mp3s of the 2-CD set: Factual Eyewitness Testimony Of: UFO Encounter. Here’s Side 1 (23:06):

Reminds me of a favorite 80s-wave songs, Suburban Lawns “Flying Saucer Safari” (2:08 mp3):