Tuesday, May 27, 2008

New Job

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted - life's been very busy and very good.

Big news: Friday is my last day at the law firm, as of next week I'll be making my living as a yoga studio manager! Yep, my friends, you read that right!

Minnetonka will be getting a brand-spanking new Corepower Yoga late June / early July and I'll be captain-ing the vessel! I'll have more info later, but I wanted to let everyone know now why I've fallen off the face of the planet!

Also, I'm doing sound/music for a 10 minute play, it debuts Wednesday at the Bedlam. More info on that during the day today.

Be well,

David

Friday, May 16, 2008

Music for the Space People

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/50691-the-knifes-olof-dreijer-more-send-music-to-the-aliens
The Knife's Olof Dreijer, More Send Music to the Aliens

No dig on Stravinsky, Chuck Berry, or the Beatles, but can we blame the extraterrestrials if they're getting a little tired of Earth's sparse musical offerings by now? Cue noted Swedish techno artist Håkan Lidbo (pictured), who has a plan to blast some slightly more contemporary sounds into outer space for the betterment of beings from all corners of the universe. Wait, why are you laughing? This is serious, man.

Lidbo is currently working in cahoots with the Swedish Space Corporation on a project to send a variety of new electronic music into space via Sweden's Esrange station-- known for offering some of the world's first commercial space flights in conjunction with Spaceport Sweden and Virgin Galactic.

And just who is contributing to the "Music for Alien Civilisations" project? Naturally, the Knife is involved. Olof Dreijer has recorded a track called "Al Jazeera", which, as Lidbo describes, presents "the very mechanics from the inside of his computer-- the sounds from the circuits and hard drives."

Continues Lidbo, "He wants to send a postcard from Earth with environmental sounds that are unique to our planet. And the way Olof sees the world, it's controlled by computers. Transactions of money and information are flooding the internet, but not many people have access to all this information...most people remain ignorant and poor. So that was his idea behind the track."

Others reaching out to our otherworldly brothers and sisters include Andreas Tillander (aka Mokira), Tobias von Hofsten (aka One), Smyglyssna, Krister Linder, Henrik Rylander, Sol Anderson, and Lidbo himself.

Lidbo has commissioned 12 tracks in all (plus an "Intro"), and he plans to meld them into a signal to be transmitted into the cosmos on June 4. That same day, he'll release a CD collecting these space jams. Check out the tracklist below.

Mr. Lidbo is deadly serious about this endeavor, too. As he writes, "A CD will be released for humans, but the music is made for alien civilisations and it holds messages and structures that are meant to give an idea who we are...some sort of universal message, sometimes with codes of binary figures, sometimes with scales and frequencies to explain how we humans function."

Why electronic music? "First of all, I think the computer is the most magnificent music instrument ever invented...so it's a good thing to show the aliens. And for humans, the sound of the synthesizer always has been associated with space; the spooky theremins in the old 40s and 50s sci-fi films and the Moog-through-space-echo psych-out soundtracks in the 70s sci-fi movies.

"If you hear something that sounds like nothing on Earth, it's very natural to associate [it with] space. I even think that electronic music can help us dream and maybe even understand space and the incredible distances a bit better."

And why radio waves? "The Voyager 1 and 2 sent out in 1977 [were] the most serious attempts to send music for alien civilisations, but after 31 years en route they haven't reached further than just beyond Pluto. We will send radio waves, [as] they are fairly easy to aim with good precision, they are easy to decode back to music, and they travel at the speed of light so the composers that send out the musical messages might still be alive when we receive the answer."

Notice he said "when", not "if." And provided all goes according to plan, we should be hearing back from the aliens by 2030. Yay!

Lidbo has also been premiering the selections to be beamed into space by first beaming them into terrestrial households via his show on Swedish National Radio, "STRÖM". The truth is out there over here.

Music for Alien Civilisations:

01 Intro
02 Sol Andersson: "All Is Full of Love"
03 Ghostfriend & Plantagon: "The Message [ft. the Indigenous Peoples of the World Through the Voice of Oren Lyons]
04 Mokira: "Rymdeko"
05 Håkan Lidbo: "Planet Earth"
06 Smyglyssna: "Meanwhile"
07 18000018018018401 and Hab: "Who We Are"
08 Yourhighness: "Calling for Cosmos"
09 Claudia Bonarelli: "Apartamento"
10 Olof Dreijer: "Al Jazeera"
11 Mathtiiaas Rosén: "Sju Flagioletter"
12 Henrik Rylander: "Information and Disinformation for Alien Civilisations"
13 One: "Heal"

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Darth Vader! - Updated with Commentary

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/7360871.stm
A man posing as Darth Vader attacked a Star Wars fan who had founded a Jedi Church, a court has heard.

Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, Anglesey, admitted assaulting Barney Jones and cousin Michael with a metal crutch. They suffered minor injuries.

Hughes, who was drunk and dressed in a black bin bag, shouted "Darth Vader!"

Earlier, when Hughes failed to arrive on time, District Judge Andrew Shaw issued an arrest warrant, adding: "I hope the force will soon be with him."

In the event, Hughes turned up and the case at Holyhead Magistrates' Court resumed.

The court heard that he had jumped over a garden wall wearing the bin bag before the attack.

Prosecutor Nia Lloyd said Barney Jones had recently started the Jedi Church in Holyhead, in honour of the good knights from Star Wars.

It had about 30 members locally and "thousands worldwide," she said.

The cousins had been filming themselves playing with light sabres in the garden before the attack.

Hughes admitted two charges of common assault.

The court was told he had a "chronic alcohol problem" and had drunk the best part of a 10-litre box of wine.

Mrs Lloyd said: "He was wearing a black bin bag and a cape and had a metal crutch in his hand."

Hughes hit Barney Jones over the head with the crutch, leaving him with a headache, before laughing and hitting Michael Jones in the thigh, causing bruising.
The court heard that Hughes could not remember the incident

Both men were left upset by the incident and they believed it was pre-planned.

She added that the pair believed "very strongly in the church and their religion".

Hughes could not remember the incident and only realised what had happened when he read about it in local newspapers, the court was told.

Defending, Frances Jones, said alcohol was "ruining his life" and he had no idea where he got the crutch from.

The court heard that Hughes had previous convictions, including affray, assault and disorderly behaviour.

The judge warned Hughes that jail remained a possibility, before adjourning for pre-sentence reports until 13 May.



edited to add commentary:

I had posted this and didn't leave any comments but honestly the more I thought about it the more I really wanted to point out a few things that change this from simply an amusing news story to one of the better stories I've read in recent times.

The first thing to point out is just how wonderful it was that the two members of the Church of the Jedi were out in the yard with a friend of theirs video-taping their lightsaber battle. Wow. I mean, this is how they spend their afternoons.

Second thing is that the Drunken Darth Vader was actually drunk on boxed wine! Out of all the beverages this Sith Lord of the Soccor Thugs could be drunk on the only one funnier than boxed wine would have been Zima.

Finally, I enjoy the Jedi's assertion that the attack was pre-planned. Persecution complex much?

Something tells me it actually went down like this:

Step one: Darth gets drunk on boxed wine
Step two: Stumble across two guys playing lightsabre in the yard while their buddy video-tapes
Step three: Wouldn't it be funny to dress up like Darth Vader and pound the Jedis asses?
Step four (an easy step): Find a garbage bag for a cape
Step five (this step is tougher): Find an appropriate light sabre. Hmm, this random crutch should do the trick
Step six: Initiate the attack

Now I could be wrong and perhaps Darth spent months analyzing the complex perimeter defenses of the Jedi Temple looking for the week spot. A team of imperial spies eventually cracked the defenses when they discovered the garden fence was short enough to allow Darth (using his force powers, no doubt) to leap over it and instigate his decimation.

Of course right now the Jedis may feel safe, but really this is just like the final moment in the original Star Wars when Darth's Tie Fighter goes into a spiral. He is out of this battle but not defeated. Darth will never be defeated!!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Brain Bong

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080509/od_nm/skull1_dc;_ylt=AtyFAq.hqGMFi4gTF0wDQd.s0NUE

Men charged after skull dug up, used as bong Fri May 9, 1:27 PM ET

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Authorities in Texas have filed corpse-abuse charges against two men who allegedly removed a skull from a grave and used it as a bong.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office confirmed on Thursday that misdemeanor abuse of corpse charges have been filed in the case.

One of the men allegedly told police they dug up a grave in an abandoned cemetery in the woods, removed a head from a body and smoked marijuana using the skull as a bong.

Police found the cemetery and a grave that had been disturbed but are still investigating the rest of the story, officials said.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

inLAnd empire

My friends Nick and Cindy live in L.A. Nick recently sent me this story, I thought it was worth sharing, so I've cut and pasted his email:

I saw the woman from the end of Inland Empire (the one who holds up the lighter to Laura Dern) on the street today, homeless. I had a feeling Lynch had probably just stumbled apon her and put her in the movie. It was a very Lynchian moment that really made me think about fame, hollywood, everything. She's in one of my favorite movies from my favorite director and here she is homeless on the street. Seconds later Cindy called me and told me she had just seen Will Smith. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Is My Birfday!

Yep. Happy Birfday to me. 34 as of about 10 minutes ago. Off to see Cut Copy and The Black Kids. Hurray!

Went to Iron Man earlier today, road my bike around, ate really good indian at Nalapak. Lots of good time with Noel and on my own. Wandered to a few comic shops to pick up dirt cheap Valiant Comics. I threw out my back a week ago and it's still tender so I eschewed other physical activity.

Hope all is well for you!

DND

Monday, May 5, 2008

Tulum

 
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Here I am on the beaches of Tulum outside the villa that was built by Pablo Escobar. Yes, the trip was as awesome as this picture makes it look. Perfectly perfect.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Cut Copy next Tues

I mentioned a month or two back how much I've been enjoying Cut Copy. That hasn't gone away and their album has more listens than any other '08 release. The great news is that they're playing the 7th St. Entry next Tuesday which just happens to be the day of my birthday. Hurray! If you're interested in coming out, watching great music and celebrating my birthday please pick up some tickets and we'll have a party!

Here's some footage of CC playing a festival:

Mitch Hedberg

A guy from work just introduced me to Mitch Hedberg. This guy was (he died in '05) really damned funny. This isn't his best stuff, but it's still quite good:

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Screen Shot #4 (final)

Here's the last one. OK, now go out and buy!

 
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Screen Shot #3

 
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Screen Shot #2

 
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Screen Shot #1

 
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Ka-baalim / Datura 1.0 DVD now out

Hey, the DVD with amazing hallucinatory Datura 1.0 visuals for Ka-baalim and Datura music is now out in a very limited edition of 8 packaged in DVD-sized glass petri dishes.

These will be for sale tonight at Bent Fest (at Intermedia Arts). $20. If there are any copies left over they'll be for sale directly through me, contact: kaba at kabaalim dot com

I'll post some screen shots throughout the day.

Very best,

DND

Robyn!

Amazing week for new music. The new Robyn album, the new Santogold and a new Goldfrapp E.P. Beautiful!

Here's the newest video by Robyn. The music is produced by The Knife!



P.S. Happy May Day!