Eno on the Beach

December 6, 2002 9:10 AM

A simple, absolutely perfect short comic about musician/artist/music producer Brian Eno (by cartoonist Tom Hart). If this puts you in the mood, why not draw wisdom from one of Eno's (and artist Paul Schmidt's) Oblique Strategies. Click (or refresh if clicking doesn't work) for a new aphorism, like shuffling a Tarot deck and drawing a new card. "Honour thy error as a hidden intention" is one of my favorites. (More inside for anyone still interested.)
posted by Shane (12 comments total)

Brian Eno's full name is Brian Peter George St. Baptiste de la Salle Eno. (I think "Eno" says it all, though.) BrianEno.com is as minimalist as some of his ambient music (I'm not sure the site is run by Eno, but if it is, the joke is apparent.) Light and sound installations and art keep Eno busy, as well as music. And the complete 4th edition of the Oblique Startegies can be found here.

You can find cartoonist Tom Hart and other fun comics at ModernTales.com. He has a 'blog (scroll down) and forum, and has books available on the net.

Hart originally published the Eno-toon in Tower Records Pulse magazine in 1996, and it currently resides (with other desktoppers) at studio-nibble.com.
(When you visit nibble, keep in mind that Lazlo is the evil crime boss figure trying to organise the werewolf population into his army, whilst Jake is out to twart his plans with the aid of his crackpot friend who believes himself to be a werewolf, but really isn't.
Also,
Lazlo is a Resistance leader, and with Germans on his tail, Ilsa knows Rick can help them get out of the country - but will he? )
posted by Shane at 9:12 AM on December 6, 2002

I love the Oblique Strategies. I first noticed them in the movie Slacker, not knowing what they were at the time.

After several sold-out and extremely limited editions, Eno has finally produced an unlimited fifth version for sale to the general public. The info is here.

enoweb is the website for all things Eno. For example, did you know you can purchase Eno in powder form?
posted by O9scar at 9:24 AM on December 6, 2002

Hmm. Here's a slightly less reverential Brian Eno cartoon from Great Pop Things.
posted by cowboy_sally at 9:26 AM on December 6, 2002

Wasn't it Brian Eno who composed the famous Mac startup chord? Or was it the Microsoft sound? Or was it both?
posted by brownpau at 9:31 AM on December 6, 2002

My favorite Tom Hart is his Hutch Owen stuff. Hilarious, silly-serious stories of an anarchist vagrant and his run-ins with corporatized culture. Thanks for the link, Shane.
posted by vraxoin at 9:37 AM on December 6, 2002

WOW! I just put on Brian Eno's Another Green World album right before looking at this.

From what I've understood, Brian Eno did both the Mac and Windows startup sounds
posted by rooster at 9:38 AM on December 6, 2002

Hart's Hutch Owen stuff on Modern Tales, as well as Trunktown, written with Shaenon Garrity, over at MT sister site Serializer.
posted by toothgnip at 10:14 AM on December 6, 2002

Brian Eno rocks. Another Green World especially. Anyone else notice that the chords to "Spinning Away" (which features prominently in the FPP cartoon) on Wrong Way Up are those of "The Big Ship" and "Becalmed" (or is it "Golden Hours?") on AGW?

I hadn't heard about the Mac sound. But I did notice his credit in the "properties" of the Windows 95 startup.

It's too bad neither of these cartoons quite gets him. The first is too reverential, and the one cowboy_sally posted is a little too cynical and narrow-focused. I'd love to see the progeny of these two cartoons - it would be perfect.
posted by soyjoy at 11:46 AM on December 6, 2002

Eno created the startup sound for Windows 95 (that"Ta da!" thing) using a Macintosh computer. A guy named Ken Kato composed "The Microsoft Sound" in use from Win 98 on. I've never heard he composed the Macintosh start up tones and can't find any reference for that on the web. As a long time Mac user, I know the chorded tone we hear today is an evolution of that sound from its earliest day, so unless Eno's responsible for the long-toned "beep!" of the original Mac, I'd say this is apocryphal.
posted by JollyWanker at 12:13 PM on December 6, 2002

Jollywanker - Hate to argue over something so incredibly trivial, but then, this is Metafilter. On my Windows 95 machine in 1996, I got Eno's name off the "properties" of a specific sound file. It wasn't the Ta-da one, it was the, um, "dummm....Blllliiiinnnngggg ......(doo-doot) ((doo-doot))" one. You know, the slurry one that sounds, well, like Eno. That one.
posted by soyjoy at 1:29 PM on December 6, 2002

Blllliiiinnnngggg

Thank God someone else says 'Bling!' for that noise. At work I get a 'Bling!' noise when I hit 'enter' where 'enter' is not allowed, and I always echo it and say 'Bling!' Sometimes out of frustration I just keep hitting 'enter' and saying 'Bling! Bling! Bling! Bling!'

There's more than just the one Bling.
posted by Shane at 2:05 PM on December 6, 2002

I've never heard he composed the Macintosh start up tones and can't find any reference for that on the web.

As far as I know Eno was never involved with the Mac's startup sounds. However, jass guitarist Stanley Jordan did the one for the 6100/7100/8100 line, and former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin had some alternative system beeps included on one of the Mac OS releases.
posted by kindall at 4:01 PM on December 6, 2002