This week’s HV cast: A woman’s song on the streets of Taipei, Taiwan, leads the producer to the outskirts of town, to climb the rock steps of the White Temple. There, high in the clouds, one hundred voices are singing a salutation to the Buddha. A story by Dmae Roberts, “”White Temple- Taiwan”” (mp3 1:51):
This week’s HV cast is for Mother’s Day. These days, taking mom out for a day-trip doesn’t involve going as far in distance, as it does back in time. Tybee Island, Georgia, now and in the 1920’s, as seen by Mrs. Massett. A story by Larry Massett, “Travels with Mom” (mp3 12:25):
This week’s HV cast is for Poetry Month. From his collection Various Atmospheres, Alex Caldiero performs “Poetry is Wanted Here” (mp3 2:58):
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.
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):
This week’s HV cast is for Earth Day. The Administration moves beyond Hydrogen Powered Automobiles. Another experiment in the crytomusicology of Presidential Patter. Produced by Jesse Boggs, “Hydrogen People” (mp3 2:05):
Demetri Martin (Trendspotting from The Daily Show) has some clever-funny stuff of his CD These Are Jokes, like this one performed w/ his mom, “The Wisdom Song” (mp3 3:09):
My bud Lukas, a WFMU Blogger and fellow KGLT DJ, has posted mp3s of the audio art classic Soap Opera Suite & Snake Oil Symphony (MP3s). These cut-up compositions are by Daniel Steven Crafts, before now available only on vinyl. A sample, “Soap Opera Suite I: The Essence of Melodrama” (5:10):
Sez Lukas: “In 1982, self-taught composer Daniel Steven Crafts released an album with two tape compositions, Soap Opera Suite and Snake Oil Symphony, on the Berkeley-based Lutra label. It is a pioneering work of found sound, and it perfectly captures the essence of TV in purely aural form. Or so I am told. I found a thoroughly used (and abused) copy on the shelves of WCBN one day, and it became one of my favorite secret weapons for weird audio collage shows and general freeform madness.”
Crafts also collaborated with Adam Cornford on (Tellus #11: The Sound of Radio) “Fundamentals: Musical Preachers” (1:00 excerpt):
This week’s HV cast is for Poetry Month. Sonia Sanchez performs her poem written to “all you young girls.” Produced by Steve Rowland and mixed by Joe Waters (a commission from WXPN with funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts) with original music by Jamaaladeen Tacuma. “Song #2” (mp3 1:56):
The ShortWaveMusic Soundblog was dormant; but Myke Weiskopf is back w/ his shortwave-radio recordings. His “Duelling XMTRs!” — multiple transmitters vying for the same spot on your dial — are transcendent serendipitous audio art; Pentacostal preachers overlap Muslim chants, spy stations compete w/ 3rd world pop.
Duelling XMTRs!: Family Radio vs. V2
“A Spanish five-figure CIA numbers station (‘V2’) was coolly running digits over a Family Radio liturgy in perfect balance.”
Duelling XMTRs! #3 Duelling XMTRs! #3 VOIRI vs. the World
“This has it all: interval signals for VOIRI and BBC, Spanish ham-radio operators, slow Morse code, data squalls, fading, phasing, heterodyne”:
Lotsa mp3s at ShortWaveMusic, from seven-stringed zithers to the Voice of Vietnam, along w/ explanations of “numbers stations” and “data squalls.” Mike has a new CD of his music that samples said SW transmissions. (Just bought my copy today.)
A (VJ Pablo Productions) video for Skyward song “Sundial” — cover of a tune by Yasmine Mohammedi by French band Lighthouse — off the self-titled Skyward CD (emusic | amazon):
Skyward has composed lotsa music for HV productions. Check the 3-bass Loop for our auto Oddio Art maker.
WFMUs blog-post of Kurt Vonnegut MP3s reminded me the SoCal prog-rock pop band, Ambrosia, put Kurt’s couplet from Cat’s Cradle to music (circa 1975)– “Nice, Nice, Very Nice”:
Here’s one of the mp3s posted by WFMU, from Ice-9 Ballads by Dave Soldier w/ Kurt Vonnegut Jr , “Annihilation Life”:
(BTW, Dave Soldier is of the Thai Elephant Orchestra and People’s Choice Music projects.)
This week’s HV cast is a father-daughter dialog for Poetry Month: Jack Kerouac’s daughter Jan, reads her an ode to her rarely seen dad; intertwined with Kerouac’s speeches and prose; produced by by . “Jan & Jack” (mp3 6:34):
A new vid from rx, one of the best pol cut-up artist out there. This one’s “to honor mlk, on the anniversary of his assassination”:
I bought his album, but if youse a cheapskate, he’s got free mp3s, like GWB doin’ “Imagine”:
This week’s HV cast is a Scott Carrier story about Fritz the dog. Fritz loves to play Frisbee. He still catches it most of the time, though not as much as he used to… before he went blind. “Blind Dog” (mp3 4:22):
A new HV story by Queena Kim airs this weekend on NPR Latino USA— Every Saturday, hundreds of Latino immigrants pilgrimage to Our Lady The Queen of the Angels, Los Angeles’ oldest mission Church, to get their baby’s baptized. The Church baptizes fifty babies an hour — more than three hundred every Saturday. Unlike other churches, Our Lady doesn’t require parents or godparents to take classes beforehand. All you do is sign-up. Abel Salas walks us through “the McDonald’s of Baptism.” (5:20 mp3):
Another evolutionary video from spoken-weird artist Ernie Cline:
There’s also a flash-y version of Ernie’s piece. Lastly, an audio selection from EC’s spoken-word posted mp3s, “The Geek Wants Out” (NSFW):
This week’s HV cast is the next in our series of readings by troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan, from the NEA book project, Operation Homecoming. Dr. Edward Jewell reads “Life on the USNS Comfort” (mp3), from his journals while aboard a Navy hospital ship on which he served as Commander. Music by Jess Atkins (4:09):
Lately been listening to Clogs. The band is basson, viola, guitar and percussion, w/ occasional voice. Here’s a medley (mp3) from their Lantern CD:
(Found our about Clogs at lissenup and Salon’s Daily Download. Here’s a nice super-8 Clogs video.)