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November 4, 2010
There's never been a better time to be a curious classical pianist.
A few YouTube users have been uploading synchronized scores to dozens of interesting pieces, usually
virtuosic and/or
obscure, and often out of print or otherwise unavailable. There are all sorts of
treasures, but perhaps the most notable scores are those of a lost generation of
post-Scriabin Russian composers whose avant-garde output was later suppressed by the Soviet government.
posted by dfan at 7:03 PM PST - 15 comments
"
Parallelograms is an album by American
psychedelic folk singer
Linda Perhacs. Her first and to date only album, it was all but completely ignored when originally released on Kapp Records in 1970. Discouraged by the lack of commercial attention and the label's reluctance to promote the album, Perhacs returned to her career as a dental technician. In the 30 or so years that followed, the
album gradually developed a
cult following, particularly on the Internet. Young listeners found appeal in her subtle instrumentation and delicate harmonies..."
Parallelograms::
Chimacum Rain::
Hey, Who Really Cares?
posted by puny human at 3:18 PM PST - 20 comments
Once the fungus invades its victim’s body, it’s already too late. The invader spreads through the host in a matter of days. . . . Just before dying, the infected body—a zombie—grasps a perch as the mature fungal invader erupts from the back of the zombie’s head to rain down spores on unsuspecting victims below, starting the cycle again. This isn’t the latest gross-out moment from a George A. Romero horror film; it is part of a very real evolutionary arms race between a parasitic fungus and its victims, ants. (SL Smithsonian article)
posted by bearwife at 2:31 PM PST - 80 comments
How They Did It - A Republican Strategy Session 11 days before Obama's inauguration. 'How they did it is the story of one of the most remarkable Congressional campaigns in more than a half-century, characterized by careful plotting by Republicans, miscalculations by Democrats and a new political dynamic with forces out of both parties’ control.'
'At that Republican retreat in January 2009, gathering inside a historic inn in Annapolis, Md., the group — led by Representatives John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader, and Eric Cantor of Virginia, the whip — did not tolerate the hand-wringing that consumed so many Republicans that dark winter.
Instead, they walked through a by-the-numbers picture of Democratic vulnerability that had been lost in the excitement over Mr. Obama’s election.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword at 1:27 PM PST - 143 comments
"Tired of arguing with climate change deniers in 140 character quips, [programmer Nigel Leck] wrote a script to do it for him. Chatbot
@AI_AGW scans Twitter every five minutes searching for hundreds of phrases that fit the usual denier argument paradigm. Then it serves them up some science." (
via by way of
via)
posted by m0nm0n at 12:21 PM PST - 57 comments
Mr Mowatt said he had always wondered what lay under an 8ft stone in the garden and eventually curiosity got the better of him, "On the screen... I could clearly see what I thought was a
white skull, with two eye sockets, looking back at me."
[more inside]
posted by BadMiker at 10:00 AM PST - 39 comments
Hilary Mantel's
Diary
Three or four nights after surgery – when, in the words of the staff, I have ‘mobilised’ – I come out of the bathroom and spot a circus strongman squatting on my bed. He sees me too; from beneath his shaggy brow he rolls a liquid eye. Brown-skinned, naked except for the tattered hide of some endangered species, he is bouncing on his heels and smoking furiously without taking the cigarette from his lips: puff, bounce, puff, bounce. What rubbish, I think, actually shouting at myself, but silently. This is a no-smoking hospital. It is impossible this man would be allowed in, to behave as he does. Therefore he’s not real, and if he’s not real I can take his space. As I get into bed beside him, the strongman vanishes. I pick up my diary and record him: was there, isn’t any more.
posted by adamvasco at 1:33 AM PST - 22 comments
