Heard on Sarah Jackson’s KGLT show last night, this women’s duo who were, well, Mirabilis:
“Mirabilis” is a Latin adjective meaning “amazing, wondrous, remarkable.” It’s also a “neo-classical/ethereal musical project started by Dru Allen of This Ascension and Summer Bowman of the Machine in the Garden.”
The song above, from their album Pleiades
Also heard, The Puppini Sisters (face | space) doing “Panic” from Betcha Bottom Dollar
Hearing Voices from NPR®
123 Cystic Fibrosis: Living with CF
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-10-05
“Cystic Fibrosis” (52:00 mp3):
Audio diaries document a decade of life with CF, a chronic, often deadly, genetic disease:
“Radio Diaries: My So-Called Lungs”” (2001 / 21:13) Joe RichmanA classic Radio Diaries: When this program premiered, Laura Rothenberg was 21 years old, or, as she likes to say, she already had her mid-life crisis a couple of years ago, and even then it was a few years late. Laura has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs and other organs. People with CF lived an average of 30 years then (now it’s 37). Radio Diaries gave Laura a tape recorder and, for two years, she kept an audio diary of her battle with the disease and her attempts to lead a normal life with lungs than often betray her.
“My So-Called Lungs” was reported by Laura Rothenberg and produced by Joe Richman, for Radio-Diaries-dot-org, with support from the Open Society Institute and Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Deborah George was the Editor. Laura Rothenberg died in March 2003. Her memoir, Breathing For a Living
“Four Failings Lungs” (2011 / 25:14) Catie TalarskiIn 2010, there were 1,770 lung transplants performed in the United States — the most ever in a single year. For a person with Cystic Fibrosis, the transplant may extend life by years — or it could lead to continued suffering and rejection of the new organ. This documentary follows two young people struggling with end-stage Cystic Fibrosis, and struggling with a decision about transplant. While most of us are just hitting our stride in our late 20s, Beth Peters and Brian Sercus are medicating, massaging and coaxing their lungs into lasting as long as possible. Producer Catie Talarski documented Beth and Brian for a year to understand what its like to live with this chronic disease.
The Delicious Playtagger seems to be gone, for now, maybe forever– possibly due to Yahoo! revisions to the Delicious service. Here’s a quick fix (version 0.1; check back: will write a better one later): playtagger_mod.zip
This uses the same Delicious audio player (playtagger.swf) and images (stop.gif, play.gif), with a revised JavaScript (playtagger_mod.js). It lets you store the files locally. (Also adds a class to the image: “mp3” for CSS styling, courtesey Consuming Experience. Plus you could create your own play/stop icons.).
To get ‘er goin’:
playtagger_mod.zip and upload to your site the folder: playtagger_modplaytagger_mod.js.playtagger_url.from: http://YOUR_DOMAIN.COM/PATH_TO_FOLDER/playtagger_mod/.
to the URL of your uploaded /playtagger_mod folder (needs trailing “/”).
<head> of any files you want the Playtagger- Mod to work, place:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://YOUR_DOMAIN.COM/PATH_TO_FOLDER/playtagger_mod/playtagger_mod.js"></script>
(Again, replace http://YOUR_DOMAIN.COM/PATH_TO_FOLDER/playtagger_mod with the URL of your /playtagger_mod folder.)
Should be good to go. The Playtagger- Mod script looks adds a little Flash audio-player mext to any mp3 links on your page. Looks/works like this:
Specialist “Laser” Lawrence (2:08; audio: Jake Warga, Iraq: Soldier’s Soundtrack.)
UPDATE: Playtagger- Mod is now working in the wilds of the great WFMU’s Beware of the Blog.
Yo, I got yer friggin’ social network right here:
Image not stolen, it fell off a truck labeled Headline Shirts.
Google/YouTube has its own Copyright Workshop with a well-linked lesson on the fine line between Fair Use and copyright infringement. Also check:
Chilling Effects“aims to help you understand the protections that the First Amendment and intellectual property laws give to your online activities.” (A clearinghouse project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics.)
The Stanford Fair Use Project “(the ‘FUP’) was founded in 2006 to provide legal support to a range of projects designed to clarify, and extend, the boundaries of ‘fair use’ in order to enhance creative freedom.
The Center for Social Media of American University “showcases and analyzes media for public knowledge and action.”
Now it’s time to steal some Disney — legally, of course. Professor Eric Faden, Bucknell University painstakingly pieced together this sampled summation, “A Fair(y) Use Tale:”
Remember, “Fair Use” is more a legal defense than a legal right; from Title 17 of the United States Code:
Section 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A [setting forth copyright owners’ exclusive rights and visual artists’ artistic rights], the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include ?
1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
Random Tape is a new sound-drenched website by David Weinberg, featuring sonic novelties, like this lovely excerpt from an audio diary entry by 16yo Auburn Ingram, “Why Am I Here?:”
The FAQ is packed with the site’s vital stats, such as:
Q: How often do you post?
A: It’s Random.Q: Have you ever tried to record the sound of two termites making love inside the cockpit of a balsa wood model airplane?
A: Yes. Unfortunately though I had the pause button on.
Hearing Voices from NPR®
122 Prisoner of Zion: Religious Fundamentals- 9/11/11
Host: Larry Massett of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-09-07
“Prisoner of Zion” (52:00 mp3):
Shortly after the World Trade Center fell in autumn 2001, it became clear the United States would invade Afghanistan. Producer Scott Carrier decided he ought to go there too. Why? To see for himself: that’s what writers do. Who are these fanatics, these fundamentalists, the Taliban and the like? And what do they want?
For the weekend of 9/11/11, Hearing Voices from NPR presents Prisoner of Zion. Carrier narrates his trip to Afghanistan. With his young guide and translator, Najibulla, they tour the horrors of war.
Years later Naji tells Scott he must leave his homeland — the dangers for a translator have become extreme. Scott gets Najibulla accepted at Utah Valley University. Naji, it turns out, handles the Mormons quite well, while Scott, teaching at the same school, has a hard time with them. At the end Naji is graduating, about to get married, and start a new job; while Scott wonders whether he can stand teaching another year — or if he’ll wind up on the street like Naji.
→ From Afghanistan: A photo-audio-essay by Scott Carrier; with sounds, images, songs and prayers of the Afghan people.
→ At Amazon: Prisoner of Zion: Muslims, Mormons and Other Misadventures
Scott talks PoZ w/ RadioWest’s Doug Fabrizio:
KUER: 8/30/11: Prisoner of Zion
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (kuer) – Wednesday, Doug is joined by independent radio producer Scott Carrier. When the US invaded Afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11, Carrier decided to go there too. He wanted to meet the enemy himself and find out what life is like in their world. But when he returned, he also found an enemy at home. It was the fear and anger that he says Americans have towards others. Scott Carrier has just published a book of stories from the post-9/11 world. It’s called “Prisoner of Zion.”
Qala-i-Jangi, Afghanistan, photo by Scott Carrier
Scott Carrier new e-book is out, Prisoner of Zion. It’s available at Amazon and soon in Apple’s iBook store.
Soon after the World Trade Center towers fell in autumn 2001, it became clear the United States would invade Afghanistan. Writer and This American Life radio producer Scott Carrier decided to go there too. He wanted to see for himself: Who are these fanatics, the fundamentalists, the Taliban and the like? What do they want?
In his new book, Prisoner of Zion, Carrier writes about his adventures, but also about the bigger problem. Having grown up among Mormons in Salt Lake City, he argues it will never work to attack the true believers head-on. The faithful thrive on persecution. Somehow, he thinks, we need to find a way—inside ourselves — to rise above fear and anger. Prisoner of Zion is Scott Carrier’s second collection of dramatic tales and essays.
William Stetson Kennedy
October 5 1916 — August 27 2011
(Website | Wikipedia)
In 2001 I stopped by Stetson’s house, on a beautiful marshland near Jacksonville, Florida. We talked about his 1939-40 recording expedition, accompanied by Zora Neale Hurston, documenting the songs and stories of Florida. That interview and those recordings become the NPR story “The Sound of 1930s Florida Folk Life” (22:00 mp3):
His good friend Woody Guthrie wrote a song about him, “Stetson Kennedy.” lyrics: Woody Gurthrie; music: Billy Bragg & Wilco, from Mermaid Avenue Vol. II
I done spent my last three cents
Mailing my letter to the President
Didn’t make a show, I didn’t make a dent
So I’m swinging over to this independent gentStetson Kennedy
Writing his name in
Stetson Kennedy
Writing his name inI can’t win out to save my soul
Long as Smathers-Dupont’s got me in the hole
Them war profit boys are squawking and balking
That’s what’s got me out here walking and talkingKnocking on doors and windows
Wake up and run down election morning
And scribble in Stetson Kennedy
I ain’t the world’s best writer, ain’t the world’s best speller
But when I believe in something I’m the loudest yeller
If we fix it so you can’t make no money on war
Well we’ll all forget what we was killing folks forWe’ll find us a peace job equal and free
We’ll dump Smathers-Dupont in a salty sea
Well, this makes Stetson Kennedy the man for me
Hearing Voices from NPR®
121 Engine Overdrive: Ode to Internal Combustion
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-08-24
“Engine Overdrive” (52:00 mp3):
Ride, rev, race, the society of over-sized cylinders:
A short symphony in pistons and rings, made from tractors recorded at the Reidsville, NC Antique Engine Show. All sounds are actual engines; the piece has no instruments or effects. Paul Overton is at: Dude Craft | Every Day is Awesome | PRX.
A pre-race prayer delivered at the Nascar Nationwide series race in Nashville TN July 23, 2011. Boogity Boogity Boogity Amen.
HV is crazy about the songs and sonics by the band Big Stick (aka,Drag Racing Underground). We start with a couple cuts from their CD Hot from the Strip! — “Drag Racing” is a re-issue of their 80s classic, and we hear excerpts from “Wildgirl‘s Rockin’ Racing,” a Saturday night WFMU radio show.
The ethanol-injected noise of cars, drivers, and fans at the annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, an ocean-side street race with top pro race-car drivers from around the globe. One-hundred-and-eighty thousand aficionados gather around a two mile course of Fast & Loud in downtown LB — 186mph avg, 200+ on the straightaways. Co-recorded by Joe Skyward.
The Avalanches 2001 album, Since I Left You, is a remix mash mind-melding found-pop-sound masterpiece. Listen to the blends & beats of “Electricity:”
It’s also their only LP, and it’s out-of-print. But the Aussie band left behind some amazing/amusing videos. And Modular Records insists “a deluxe 10-Year Anniversary treatment” is on the way. Till then, here’s the title track:
Listening to the Yellowstone Public Radio live broadcast of the Magic City Blues fest. Playing right now, fresh from three days of Sturgis gigs, rickin’ the stage is Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band — all 3 members:
The video for The Rev. Peytons Big Damn Bands new song Clap Your Hands was shot in one day in a barn in Indiana. All of the dancers, artists, freaks, weirdos, cowboys, kids, donkeys, bunko steerers, chickens, and regular folks, who are all Hoosiers, all volunteered their time and talent because they believed in the song and the band. The video was directed/produced by the acclaimed music video producer Kevin Custer (Lil Wayne, Soldja Boy, Flogging Molly) who remarked the day of the shoot, it would have cost a fortune to get all of these props back in NYC. To which The Rev. Peyton replied, These arent props they are just crap you find in a barn!
A 360° panoramic photo of “Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb,” one of several by Shigeo Hayashi:
“On October 1, 1945, I stood at the hypocenter of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and made a slow revolution. In that instant I had a difficulty grasping that this city had been felled by a single explosion.”
Check out the full-size (and full-screen) panoramas at 360Cities: Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb (1 of 5) by Shigeo Hayashi in Japan
The campaign 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting has some good news and a gift of thanks:
Thanks to you, the majority of federal funding for public broadcasting was preserved during the 2011 budget debate.
As a token of our gratitude, 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting and Anti-records are releasing RAISE YOUR VOICE! Sixteen free tracks from some of your favorite musicians – available only to advocates for public broadcasting for a limited time.
How can you download your free album?
Visit RYVoice.org and enter your contact information – then follow the downloading instructions on your screen. (Yes, we already have your contact info, but we still need you to enter your email address and zip to set up the download properly. We won’t send you any duplicate emails – promise!)
Invite your friends through Facebook and Twitter to join our campaign and download their free album as well! The 2012 budget debate in Washington will be a tough fight, and we need as many advocates to join us in support of public broadcasting.
RAISE YOUR VOICE! features artists who love public broadcasting and want to give back, including: Tom Waits, Wilco, Neko Case, Booker T. Jones, Man Man, Frank Turner, Mavis Staples, Jolie Holland, William Elliott Whitmore, Tinariwen, Lost in the Trees, Sean Rowe, Dr. Dog, Joe Henry, Marketa Irglova and Devotchka.
Thank you to Anti-records and these amazing recording artists for their contributions to the 170 Million Americans campaign!
Thank you, again, for being a part of our campaign to support a strong public media in America.
Picasso Ears Everywhere (courtesy of make-your-own Picassohead):
Hearing Voices from NPR®
120 Dear Diary: Audio Journals
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-08-03
“Dear Diary” (52:00 mp3):
Documenting daily life:
Geir Jenssen, the musician who records as Biosphere, is also a mountain climber. On his Himalayan ascent of the sixth highest mountain in the world, he kept an audio journal of all the sounds. The result is the CD Cho Oyu 8201m Field Recording from Tibet
Thruout the hour, we hear excerpts from the tracks “Zhangmu: Crossing A Landslide Area” (2300 meters above sea level), “Palung: A Yak Caravan is Coming (5400m), “Cho Oyo Basecamp: Morning” (5700m), “Jobo Rabzang: A 6666 metre peak in the Cho Oyu Himal”, “Camp 3: Neighbours On Oxygen” (7500m), “Summit: Only slight breeze on the summit at 8201m.” Also this piece “sampled and processed from a cassette of Tibetan music.”
Writer Carmen Delzell finds a box of journals she wrote as a girl, and enters an addendum as she reflects on her 1960s self. Produced for NPR All Things Considered.
For twenty years, Reverend Robert Shields, of Dayton, Washington, kept a written record of absolutely everything that happened to him, day and night. For four hours each day, Shields holes himself up in the small office in his home, turns on his stereo, and types. His diary, at 35 million words, is believed the world’s longest. A Sound Portraits production, on the CD Holding On: Dreamers, Visionaries, Eccentrics And Other American Heroes 
For RD’s Teenage Diaries project, they gave “tape recorders to young people around the country to report on their own lives. They conduct interviews, keep an audio journal and record the sounds of daily life — usually collecting more than 40 hours of raw tape over the course of a year. Nick Epperson of Salt Lake City began his audio diary when he was 13. The talented singer/cellist music, but has a hard time making friends.
From the movie Annai Kaligambal (singer/dancer Ramya Krishnan?):
Hearing Voices from NPR®
119 Trouble: From Bad to Worse
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-07-20
“Trouble” (52:00 mp3):
If you’re looking for trouble, you come to the right place:
Erica was a private investigator; now she’s a radio producer. The skills overlap: you ask questions, try to figure what happened, and make a report. (None of the interviewees were clients when she recorded them.) Produced by Larry Massett.
Recitations from the nightly news: a litany of tragedy, mayhem and murder. From Joe’s 2005 hour Bad Faith, and in his collections in the Joe Frank Shop, on the CD Joe Frank Team Favorites, Volume 2. Music: “A Mother (For Your Mind)” The Herbaliser, Blow Your Headphones.
A good neighbor goes bad in the producer’s DC block. Dozens of rats are infesting her yard and attacking other houses. Produced for This American Life, “Neighbors,” and part of Katie’s Neighborhood Stories series. End music: Music: “Cheval Noir” Fug, Ready For Us.
“I can break the law because… I am the law.” Sleepless in Tbilisi. A twenty-four hour tour, from Turkish baths to Batumi beaches, through the country of Georgia, in Southwest Asia. High-speed sight-seeing, driven by the accidental tourguide: “a ‘detective,’ or ‘special police,’ or ‘security force.’ It’s not clear. Sometimes he even says ‘KGB,’ though that no longer exists… does it?” Music: “Dachrilis Simgera (Song for Wounded)” Tbilisi Vocal Ensemble, Georgian Folk and Sacred Songs (2002). (Annotated transcript.)
Password-protecting a WordPress Post/Page hides its Content and Excerpt, but not its Custom Fields: those can still show. Below are ways to hide ’em, and functions for customizing the default WP Password-Protected messages.
Setting the Visibility to Password-protected changes the:
"Protected: ", to the output of get_the_title().get_the_excerpt(): “There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.”get_the_content().