Billie Holiday Sings album. Unadorned and straight from the soul. Feel free to lie back on the couch and let out an “aaaaahhhhhhh….”

Tags: Audiophilia by Etruscan
No Comments »

The newest issue of Wired turned up yesterday; and leafing over it with my coffee this morning I came across a couple phrases that I found to be truly jarring. Below is the excerpt from Wired’s Creative Director Scott Dadich (I’d link to the full article but they haven’t updated the site with the new issue yet):

Constraint offers an unparalleled opportunity for growth and innovation. Think of a young tree, a sapling. With water and sunshine, it can grow tall and strong. But include some careful pruning early in its development- removing low hanging branches – and the tree will grow taller, stronger, faster. It won’t waste precious resources on growth that doesn’t serve its ultimate purpose. The same principle applies to design. Given fewer resources, you have to make better decisions.

This gets me on a couple different levels. Given the economic climate, we’re all attempting to do this in one way or another. On another, Neko and I have had this up in discussion a lot lately. But the thing is, I’ve never looked at it from a design perspective though. Taking a more expansive view; if you treat your own life as a design of your own making, doesn’t it behoove you to make it the most efficient (and therefore the most minimal) that you’re able to? Isn’t it such that our boundaries present the greatest opportunities for growth?

**Update** The websites been refreshed, so the full article is Here

Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Economics by Etruscan
No Comments »

Haile is a robotic percussionist that can listen to live players, analyze their music in real-time, and use the product of this analysis to play back in an improvisational manner. It is designed to combine the benefits of computational power and algorithmic music with the richness, visual interactivity, and expression of acoustic playing. We believe that when collaborating with live players, Haile can facilitate a musical experience that is not possible by any other means, inspiring players to interact with it in novel expressive manners, which leads to novel musical outcome. Two pieces were composed for Haile, “Pow” for a robotic and human percussionist playing a Native American Pow Wow drum, and “Jam’aa”, for a Middle Eastern drum circle and a robotic percussionist.

This is really cool every festival should have one of these, until eventually this virtual experience can happen without us. It’s good to know that after robots destroy mankind on earth, there will still be a counter culture.

There are a bunch of videos links on the site. I recommend checking them out. I know its not possible, but I would live to have one of these than I could have my own robotic breakcore drum line. It would be like Peter Fox on Meth.

GTCMT – Thanks Grinding.be

Tags: Audiophilia by Gestalt
No Comments »

Personally, I thought it was a fitting time to address this issue.  Seeing as I bought a box of tissues and a generic brand name for dayquil at the grocery store yesterday.  I first felt the virus coming on Sunday day and bought a box of Zicam chewable.  Hoping that it would either stop the cold dead in it’s tracks or a least shorten it’s life span within me.  I do not know if the $11 box of Zicam helped or not but all I know is that I have this retched cold that makes me sound like I’m talking out of my nose!  I don’t feel tired (yet) but I am annoyed with the running nose and sneezing!  I think this is cold number 3 for me this season.  I am just thankful I haven’t seen a soar throat out of this one (crossing fingers!)

Apparently, I am not the only one suffering from the beautiful mutated virus this time of the year!  This sounds so familiar:

Between October and March, the following scene plays out in workplaces across the country.

Employee 1: “I think I’m coming down with something.”

Employee 2: “Yeah, something’s been going around. Everyone’s got it.”

Never mind how annoying it is that something’s always going around, thereby robbing you of much-needed sympathy. Every flu season it does seem that at least one employee comes down with something and, by spring, everyone will have suffered from it.

Did you ever wonder why no one can seem to shake that ailment? One big reason is the constant stream of under-the-weather employees reporting to work. Yes, punctual, dependable colleagues are making you sick.

In fall and winter, expect to hear a symphony of sniffles, sneezes and groans from employees who refuse to stay home. At first you might admire their tenacity to get the job done despite their own health. Then you realize their presence might make you and everyone else feel just as bad in a few days — suddenly they’re not so admirable.

courtesy of:  http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/02/02/cb.do.not.work.sick/index.html

Washing your hands is the simplest and most effective way to keep from getting a cold.  I know it’s hard but do not touch your nose or eyes.  If you have a cold you should always sneeze or cough into a facial tissue, and promptly throw it away. That is just common courtesy. If possible, avoid close, prolonged exposure to persons who have colds.  This is hard when you have to be at work or live with someone.

It’s unbelievable but the rhinoviruses can survive up to three hours outside the nasal passages on inanimate objects and skin, cleaning environmental surfaces with a virus-killing disinfectant like Lysol spray might help prevent spread of infection.  The use of hand sanitizers is not always a good idea because they can kill the good kind of bacteria too.

Just hunker down and ride the cold out…drink lots of water and get rest…that’s about all we really can do.

(Click on the links for zicam and lysol to visit their site for coupons!)
Some info came from: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and my personal knowledge of dealing with a cold.

Tags: I should probably go to bed, Sarcophophilia by Nekogirl
No Comments »

Thanks, Diesel Sweeties

Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Economics, Pictoriphilia, Zombiphilia by Gestalt
No Comments »

I forget offhand where I first picked it up, but lately I’ve been really enjoying Emily Webber’s London Shop Fronts blog:

It is, quite simply, photos of various shops around London taken at street level and usually quite closed at the time. The blog itself consists only of these images which I find to be entirely refreshing and enjoyable. Due to the time difference, they usually hit my RSS reader just before I’m up and having my usual morning-coffee-in-the-dark-staring-out-the-window time. It’s become a quiet urban zen type of moment for me, and I’ve realized that I prefer it much more than anything an overly romantic skyline view of one of my favorite cities has to offer. London from street level is absolutely the real charm of the city.

Gratuitous extra link here.

Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Pictoriphilia by Etruscan
No Comments »