Friday Ephemera
The robotic fly. // Aaron Koblin’s Flight Patterns. Air traffic density and flow. (h/t, Coudal.) // A map of the sky. // A panorama of London. // World’s largest wind turbine. Each blade measures 126 metres. (h/t, 1+1=3.) // Time-lapse Wii. // Self-tuning guitar. // Electronic pitch correction. Aka “the bitch shifter”. // Five neglected musical instruments. (h/t, Dark Roasted Blend.) // The Stribe. Looks better than it sounds. More. // Dickie Goodman’s sampladelica. (1961) // Wooden iBox. // Phone boxes. // The cell phone booth. // Heavy Everywhere catalogue. (pdf) More. // Octopus ornaments. // Snow walker. // Green politics, black shirt. // Andrew Bostom interview. On Islamic anti-Semitism and the teaching of contempt. // Robert Spencer on Juan Cole. // Norman Geras on the Lancet’s Richard Horton. // Callimachus on teaching “social justice”. (h/t, Maggie’s Farm.) // Iowahawk on Rowan Williams and the Tale of the Asse-Hatte. // 100 scary movie scenes. // Sunspot 10982. // “You have 10 seconds to reach minimum safe distance.” Prangs, bangs and auto-destruct. // And, via The Thin Man, Nichelle Nichols takes disco to a whole new level.
The disco — it burns…
Yes, it’s almost Shatner-esque in its delivery. Sort of like a low-rent Shirley Bassey doing the chicken-in-a-basket circuit after five too many cocktails.
Hey, is that Mohammed (peace be upo..BOOM!)
I’m wondering if it might not be a bad idea for the the entire western hemisphere to repent on behalf of Nichelle Nichols. Just to be on the safe side.
Although, there’s a rarefied pleasure in hearing the musicians subtly registering their response to what’s going on. If there’s anyone else out there who enjoys hearing musicians making faces behind someone’s back, try to get a hold of “Florence Foster Jenkins and Friends”, put out by Naxos. She was a wealthy socialite who — horrifyingly — loved to sing, and furthermore had more than enough money to pay for quality musicians to back her up.
One can hear, particularly on her Valse Caressante, how her piano player warms up to the task, and by the end finds furtive pleasure in augmenting her…display. At this link she’s in full voice from the get-go, but her piano player is just getting warmed up:
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/samples/f/l/Florence_Foster_Jenkins_-_Valse_Caressante.mp3
The album also features eight songs by other artists (Jimmy Durante makes three soldierly appearances) each of which, for various reasons, are classic faceplants. The highlight of these non-Jenkins cuts is an attempt at popular music, “Please Don’t Say No”, by Wagnerian Tenor Lauritz Melchior. Possibly the least-effective romance song ever recorded, it brings to mind not successful seduction but rather an unbathed Homer Simpsonesque guy with a wet cigar stump in his mouth squeezing some moll too hard while eating a big onion-y hot dog at the racetrack.
Sadly, this link too doesn’t let this song to develop into its full orchestral glory — trust me on that one — but it’s a taste:
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/samples/f/l/Florence_Foster_Jenkins_-_Please_Don't_Say_No.mp3
(BTW, this is a thrill. I’ve been suffering through the rural 23k service for too long, so I finally sprung for the sky-dish. It no longer takes two hours to upload a short video. I can graze upon the Friday Ephemera like the other kids, now. I don’t feel left out. Praise be.)
EBD,
“I can graze upon the Friday Ephemera like the other kids, now. I don’t feel left out.”
Welcome to the giddiness of the intartubes deluxe. Feel the rush. And I believe Florence Foster Jenkins is singing in the key of H.
Jenkins’ album is subtitled “Murder on the High C’s”, but personally I give it an A+. If you can endure the first-run gauntlet it actually makes for compelling listening; you end up appreciating her effort, and recogninzing that there’s a song in the urge to sing.
I have no punch line.