g o n e , g o n e , a n d n e v e r c a l l e d m e m o t h e r

ok, no more blogs here, consider this site abandoned by yours (un)truly.

new unsong blog home here.

come on over, you're missing all the 'fun'.

m u s i c b y w h i c h t o w r i t e

a short list of sounds which i currently use when writing.
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buddha machines i & ii.
brainchild of ambient noodling masters fm3 the buddha machines are small plastic electronic boxes that play 9 different ambient loops; drones, plinks, plonks and oddnesses. the mk.ii machine even has a pitch bend facility (rejoice o inner geek!). endless and hypnotic.
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'extended play (triptych for the child survivors of war and conflict)' -cd- by janek schaefer.
more stunning mucking about with vinyl from mr. schaefer, this time combining cello, piano and violin in shifting patterns, each in their own track and then together in the 24:00 'accoustic emsemble'. plaintive and oddly calming. for a short video detailing the exhibition this recording sprang from (shown on the cd cover) have a gander here.
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'kulmakia' -cd by angel.
angel (a.k.a. Ilpo Väisänen of Pan sonic with Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM) produce bottomless waves of guitar, of violin, of electronic tones and drones. played on the wrong (faster) speed this would become a cacophony, as it is it's kind of like drowning; but in a good way.
i'm guessing the following discription has been translated from finnish:
"kalmukia is vast epic sprawling through guitar riffs spanning deep electronic canyon overlooked by a melancholic grey sky. a journey leading to discovery and a final mutation. all players involved delicately playing off each other creating a mesmerising work that sounds like nothing they have done before yet still retaining the audio signatures they have become known for."

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and last, but by no means least, 'the dying submariner (a concerto for piano and reverberation in four movements)' -cd- by andrew liles.
put simply, this is like listening to the sound of a thousand pianos dropped from great heights, played slow-motion at the bottom of the sea. and yet there is composition here, rather than pure chaos. the sound of mozart drowning maybe, a thousand mozarts. a huge and unfathomable sound; the word vertiginous comes to mind. -if you can get the limited edition with the bonus disc of 'the dead submariner (a concerto for bowed guitar and reverberation in three movements)' do so, it's equally impressive.

a d r o p p i n g o f e a v e s

to set the scene:

christmas eve, the slipper room, new york.

an evening of burlesque, somewhat sparsely attended.

our host for the evening is an italian "3rd generation acrobat", quite the worse for wear due to alcohol or any number of illicit substances consumed when he disappeared downstairs earlier in the evening with a man dressed as elvis.

the acrobat decides to balance head first, on top of a basket ball, on top of a bar stool; which incredibly, considering his inebriation, he succeeds in doing. he teeters worryingly.

a voice behind me:

"if he dies, we're leaving"

b e s e e i n g y o u

unmutual to the end.

i n a p p r o p r i a t e

something tells me that starting the coursework for my autobiography class with the quotation:

"in the sixty year history since the development of cephalometric radiology, literally hundreds of methods of analysis have been proposed."

from robert rubin's making sense of cephalometrics, is both inappropriate and possibly deleterious to my future academic career. such as it is.

still.

t o d r e a m t h e i m p o s s i b l e d r e a m

g o i n g d o w n ?

"in most elevators, at least in any built or installed since the early nineties, the door-close button doesn't work. it is there mainly to make you think it works. (it does work if, say, a fireman needs to take control. but you need a key, and a fire, to do that.) once you know this, it can be illuminating to watch people compulsively press the door-close button. that the door eventually closes reinforces their belief in the button's power. it's a little like prayer. elevator design is rooted in deception-to disguise not only the bare fact of the box hanging by ropes but also the tethering of tenants to a system over which they have no command. "

-from 'up and then down -the lives of elevators' (full article here) by nick paumgarten (video of the case of mr. nicholas white found here)