October 7, 2014
A Reason To Go To Palm Springs Pride
Parts of Camp Walter will be at Palm Springs Pride this year: Kalliope, their VW Bus, and maybe even their Bug...at least it's depicted on the poster. November 8 and 9 on Amado Road.
Photo by Duncan Rawlinson.
permalink | October 7, 2014 at 07:12 AM | Comments (1)
August 19, 2014
No Stinkin' Dubstep DJs Needed
Some genius (named either Anita or Martin) has devised some software that will create endless dubstep with no repeats. It runs on a phone. A sample:
They've put this system with its phone into a box with a lot of speakers and they're bringing it to Burning Man. Ho hum, right? I wouldn't walk over to Playoffs for dubstep night. But here comes the real gee-whiz part: humans can interact with the system to step up the intensity of the music by turning a handcrank (like on a Model T) until it reaches a level the program considers sufficient for a drop, the red button lights up, you hit it and the drop. Here's a demonstration:
I hope you didn't fail to notice the unintended consequence. If this is on during daylight hours, Burners may feel compelled to put their head into the speakers to try to see if the red light has come on.
permalink | August 19, 2014 at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)
August 8, 2014
Burning Man Baroque
Handel shares his views on Burning Man 2013:
permalink | August 8, 2014 at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)
"Close to you"
An apartment building in Downey built by Karen and Richard Carpenter. Another one across the street was named for another of their songs. This building also commemorates one of their less popular tunes: Deliveries In Rear."
permalink | August 8, 2014 at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)
July 4, 2014
Metal
I experienced my single annual LOL watching this.
permalink | July 4, 2014 at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2014
All by himself
Overnight in the Las Vegas airport and this is the result:
permalink | June 11, 2014 at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)
June 5, 2014
GoPro Makes Music
Or helps to make music, anyway. The fun begins at about 33 seconds.
permalink | June 5, 2014 at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
June 4, 2014
In The Tradition Of Baseball And The U.S. Navy
Watch for the cameo appearance by the American flag.
permalink | June 4, 2014 at 02:50 PM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2014
Do you suppose...
...that Donald Sterling is bothered to learn that his L.A. Clippers, which have been in existence since 1970, is worth only two-thirds as much as Dr. Dre's Beats Music which has been around since January?
permalink | May 29, 2014 at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2014
Better Late Than Never?
This link will put you at the 44-second mark in the song Taurus by Spirit - produced in 1968. Just give that a listen.
Having given it 43 years of thought, Spirit is suing Led Zeppelin.
Randy California, who wrote Taurus, died in 1997.
permalink | May 17, 2014 at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2014
At The Austin Reggae Fest
A video from a rare and dedicated videographer. Some young, not bad looking guy got totally naked at the Austin Reggae Fest. "B2TheJ Howard" captured good clear video for more than 5 minutes. The nudist seems to be happy and in good spirits, but as you watch you'll see him touch women who do not want to be touched and at one point he walks backward across somebody's blanket and just rudely kicks something out of the way.
When the cops finally showed up and the naked guy took off running, our videographer chased along, still getting good video! Go to 3:10. Notice the dude (that is the correct technical term) sitting in the chair just inches from the wrestling match between the cops and the naked guy. Everybody else has cleared back away, but he stays seated. What is that on his lap that is so valuable?
I hope it doesn't spoil your enjoyment if I tell you the doper spilled none of his weed and went home a free man. The naked guy did not enjoy similar good fortune.
permalink | May 12, 2014 at 08:13 AM | Comments (3)
May 7, 2014
Elcaset and DCC
I never heard of these formats. I guess I was busy with something else. Elcaset was in the late 1970s. DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) was in the early 1990s. Here's an interesting video explaining both formats.
permalink | May 7, 2014 at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2014
"Koyaanisqatsi in 5 minutes"
For those who have never been able to commit 86 minutes of their life to watching the full movie but were curious about the visuals, here ya go. It seems to include all the scenes in the film, but that is not the soundtrack...although it is by Glass.
You can hear the original soundtrack here.
Inexpensive digital photography and remote control copters have made many of the effects seen in this film almost ubiquitous. The film was released in 1982, shot entirely on film (what else?) and no CGI. At the time, there was nothing else like this of similar length.
permalink | April 26, 2014 at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2014
Coachella Ain't Burning Man
Like you didn't already know, take a look at this. $799 is effectively the cover charge to be allowed to belly up to the VIP cash bar. BYO ice & cup? Probably not.
permalink | April 12, 2014 at 10:35 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2014
The Complexity Of DJing At Burning Man
You're also part of a Burning Man camp called The Kazbah. Is it refreshing for you to book acts and DJ without all the politics of the music industry?For me that's one of the best parts of Burning Man. When it comes to big DJs playing our camp, or any camp for that matter, there are no contracts or agencies involved. It's just like "Hey, it would be really cool if you came over to DJ at our camp! We would all really like that." And if they feel up to it, then they do it. That must be amazing for those DJs too, because at some point, for every DJ, it wasn't about the money -- it was about the love of DJing, and the chance to share amazing music. Burning Man provides that opportunity, and I think that's why it has become such an influential part of the house music scene today. The Kazbah randomly ended up having Dubfire of Deep Dish play our camp on the final Sunday afternoon at Burning Man. I also watched Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler play back to back sets for about ten consecutive hours hopping from camp to camp. If you are really into dance music, this type of surprise is really special.
permalink | April 11, 2014 at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)
April 7, 2014
GoPro For Music
When GoPro sponsors your band you can end up with a video like this:
The quadcopter goes unmentioned because they are mostly promoting some new mounts for musical performance: the $15 microphone mount and a new sticky mount that is less sticky ($20) so you can peel it off your guitar without damage (or with acceptable damage).
They don't show it in this video, but a new item that is obviously developed especially for music fans (although I'm sure musicians could use it too) is the Blackout Housing ($50) which is intended to make your use of a GoPro camera more discreet by covering everything in matte black except the lens and the front display...and it comes with a little insert to cover that display too.
Look in the comments on the YouTube video and you'll see that this video seems to have convinced the venerable WGBH to spring for a GoPro. Actually, I'm a little surprised it took so long.
permalink | April 7, 2014 at 02:53 PM | Comments (2)
March 27, 2014
I Overlooked The Day Of Happiness!
Who knew that March 20 was the United Nations Day Of Happiness (that link is slow as hell for me)? That sounds like something the UN could actually handle, as long as you don't ask anybody for specific information about what makes them happy. "Taking Crimea makes me happy!" said one permanent member of the Security Council. I'm looking forward to the United Nations Day Of Arguing and Pointless Mulling. That should be even bigger.
But screw the UN, the big thing on March 20 was Pharrell's Happyday Supercut with people dancing to Happy all over the world, especially not in Los Angeles. You might want to skip the first 35 minutes, unless you really want to listen to a message from someone wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses who is not a cop.
Was that a real Cardinal? Did you notice how they lowered that saturation a bit so it didn't look exactly like the original?
Brazil gets its own version. They've got ancient Roman aqueducts in Brazil. What's the story behind that?
Pharrell did a special shoutout to Anarctica, so here's their video...which features the only identifiable GoPro footage I've seen in any of these.
permalink | March 27, 2014 at 08:13 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2014
That Other Burner Music
David Blink said:
I've always been a fan of wandering in the deep playa and the musical encounters have been highlights of my Burn. I decided I would go out each night to the deep playa and perform improvised music at different art installations. My gift back to the audience would be gifting that actual song to them post-playa through my SoundCloud page.
The playlist is here. Twenty, uh, tunes, all freely downloadable. Adds up top an hour and 48 minutes of music. No techno, dubstep or any o' that. (Not all are MP3 - some are AIF, some M4A).
Here's one:
If you like that here's his 5-tune playlist from 2012.
permalink | March 20, 2014 at 06:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2014
Na Nachs
Why are these people not coming to Burning Man?
In a sense, the Na Nach are very traditional. They keep strict religious rules about diet and modesty, for example. But in most other ways, their religious style diverges from other Hasidic groups. Shaul Magid, a scholar of Hasidic Judaism from the University of Indiana, says while most Orthodox movements focus on reading and studying, the Na Nachs are more interested in having intense, personal and ecstatic experiences with God.
"...the truth is almost none of the Na Nachs use drugs." Almost.
permalink | March 15, 2014 at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2014
Led Zeppelin Reissues
June 3, 2014. That's when Led Zeppelin will release remastered versions of these albums: Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, and Led Zeppelin III. These will be deluxe editions that include previously unreleased outtakes and a lot of other goodies. Amazon pre-orders:
