March 1, 2015
Violin videos: Women playing music written by women
Each video inside depicts at least one woman playing Western art music composed by a woman, on a violin. Most of the videos include other performers and other instruments as well. Before you can perform the music of women composers, first you have to find it. Links are included to some sheet music and recordings of violin music by women composers. [more inside]
Titan, awash in oceans of liquid methane and full of azotosomes?
"A press release from Cornell explains how the researchers used some creative chemical modeling to construct a hypothetical, methane-based cell that's stable in Titan's sub-zero oceans. They call their alien life form an "azotosome."" [more inside]
On pregnancy, waiting and the malleability of time
"I am waiting for my baby, waiting for summer, waiting for knowledge, but the waiting itself becomes the knowledge and then, even as I am so hungry for transition I am practically clawing out of my skin, I begin to mourn and maybe to fear the fading of this particular consciousness: the Zen state, the acid trip of gestation, and its changed relationship to time."
The Book of Life
After a year, The Philosophers' Mail (previously) has concluded its project. But fret not: it has been succeeded by The Book of Life, a continuously updated online book that "aims to be the curation of the best and most helpful ideas in the area of emotional life."
“But the man’s uniquely evil, isn’t he?”
John Gray: The Truth About Evil:
Blair made this observation in November 2002, four months before the invasion of Iraq, when he invited six experts to Downing Street to brief him on the likely consequences of the war. The experts warned that Iraq was a complicated place, riven by deep communal enmities, which Saddam had dominated for over 35 years. Destroying the regime would leave a vacuum; the country could be shaken by Sunni rebellion and might well descend into civil war. These dangers left the prime minster unmoved. What mattered was Saddam’s moral iniquity. The divided society over which he ruled was irrelevant. Get rid of the tyrant and his regime, and the forces of good would prevail. If Saddam was uniquely evil 12 years ago, we have it on the authority of our leaders that Isis is uniquely evil today. Until it swept into Iraq a few months ago, the jihadist group was just one of several that had benefited from the campaign being waged by western governments and their authoritarian allies in the Gulf in support of the Syrian opposition’s struggle to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. Since then Isis has been denounced continuously and with increasing intensity; but there has been no change in the ruthless ferocity of the group, which has always practised what a radical Islamist theorist writing under the name Abu Bakr Naji described in an internet handbook in 2006 as “the management of savagery”.[more inside]
In Style: The Dress Doctors
"Before ready-to-wear and before fast fashion, American women created affordable clothing for themselves and their families with help from the Dress Doctors—the thrift experts, home economics professors, and fashion guide authors who advised women how to craft the most appropriate looks for less." Historian Linda Przybyszewski talks about the rise of home economics, women's entry into academic departments in higher education, and the origins of American theory on suitable, affordable clothing for everyday wear. Before the Dress Doctors, however, there was Mary Brooks Picken, the First Lady of Fashion. [more inside]
"This movie was made in 1986. It invented all the cliches."
Matt Zoller Seitz hosted a sleepover for his 11 year old son and his son's friends. Soon it came time to watch a movie, which produced: Notes on watching "Aliens" for the first time again, with a bunch of kids .
Wonders of Destruction in Arabic Fiction
Historians of war and society would like to believe that military conflicts have fixed beginnings and ends. Conventional depictions of the Lebanese civil war are no exception and typically confine that conflict within the notional temporal parameters of 1975–90. But the key aggravating features generally identified with the events of the Lebanese civil war—class resentments, echoes of the Arab-Israeli conflict on a regional scale, domestic geographical inequalities, sectarian rancor, and political infighting across the Lebanese scene—had been accumulating since 1948, and even earlier. [more inside]
Baruch Morde... why?
Purim starts Wednesday night. A minor Jewish holiday best described as a cross between Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, Purim celebrates Esther. [more inside]
Spring's Herald in Bulgaria
Happy Baba Marta Day! Time to get your Martenitsas together and pick out a tree to hang them on when spring finally comes. ...Or, if you're not in Bulgaria, just read this. [more inside]
New music from L.A./Little Armenia
Bei Ru is a Los Angeles-based multi-genre music producer/composer known for his unconventional use of Middle Eastern melodies and rhythms combined with heavy drums, electronics, and a plethora of live instrumentation. His new album, ‘Saturday Night At The Magic Lamp’, blends electronica, Middle Eastern influences, funk and hip-hop, featuring musicians playing electric bass, electric guitar, electric oud, cello, keyboards and piano
If you listen to only one L.A.-based, Armenian-American, instrumental, electronic, Middle-Eastern, funk, hip-hop song today, make it "Sweet Temptress" [SLYT]
If you listen to only one L.A.-based, Armenian-American, instrumental, electronic, Middle-Eastern, funk, hip-hop song today, make it "Sweet Temptress" [SLYT]
The 27-year hunt for a mystery New Wave song: Solved!
In 1986, a German teenager hit "record" on his cassette player to catch a New Wave song from the radio. But he missed the intro, and so had no idea what the song was called or who the artist was. Contacting music journalists in the 1990s proved unfruitful, so in 2002 he posted it online on his "Most Wanted" music page. For 11 years, the mystery song - known as Stay (The second time around) for its lyrics - was the source of intense speculation and detective work (including in AskMe), with dozens of potential matches eliminated. A YouTube post in 2007 broadened the search, but still yielded no answers. It wasn't until 2013, when a Swedish Radio host chanced upon a Reddit thread about the song and played it on air, that the mystery was finally solved by two listeners. [more inside]
An argument for more cats and fewer humans in genetics class
Unfortunately, what textbooks, lab manuals and web pages say about these human traits is mostly wrong. Most of the common, visible human traits that are used in classrooms do NOT have a simple one-locus, two-allele, dominant vs. recessive method of inheritance. Rolling your tongue is not dominant to non-rolling, unattached earlobes are not dominant to attached, straight thumbs are not dominant to hitchhiker's thumb, etc.
Deep Soul: Rick Hall's brand of integration in segregated Muscle Shoals
How Muscle Shoals became music's most unlikely hit factory (previously, 2008) If you love music and musical history, you really owe it to yourself to see the superb "Must See" documentary Muscle Shoals now on NetFlix and other online venues - Trailer here. Rick Hall of Fame Studios is the quintessential American "rags to riches" story and the "peckerwood" group "The Swampers" (and eventually the competing Muscle Shoals Music Studio) that he unintentionlly spawned, are together responsible for many of the classic soul and R&B hits that are part of the very fabric of American Music. [more inside]
In Voodoo’s survival, a tale of black resilience
African religions fused with Christianity to create Voodoo, but today many open practitioners of the faith are white.
The plural of fish is not "tangible objects"
Last week the Supreme Court of the United States ruled (PDF) on the case of Yates v. United States, whether the captain of a fishing boat violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by throwing undersized red grouper overboard to avoid prosecution. [more inside]
Rediscovering San Francisco's Punk Scene in a Box of Old Negatives
In the late 70s, John Roberts was a visual arts major at San Francisco's Institute of Art who spent his free time documenting the Bay Area's blossoming punk scene. His photos—a mix of street photography, portraiture, and concert shots—uniquely captured the last moments of the city's pre-AIDS and post-hippie era. Roberts's best shots were from a tiny punk venue called the Deaf Club on Valencia Street. The Deaf Club was a deaf community center that hosted hardcore shows from 1978 to 1980—the resulting scene was grungy, sweaty, and truly bizarre, and Roberts's photos captured it perfectly.
Showcasing The Dreams and Passions Of Russians Aged 1 to 100
Photographer Keen Heick-Abildhauge loves Russia and decided to ask various residents about their passions and ambitions. The result is Portraits And Dreams Of People From 1 To 100 Years Of Age.
The first rule of Pittsburgh is you don't talk shit about Pittsburgh.
On January 6, 2014, Pittsburgh was in the middle of an especially harsh cold snap. The temperature had hit seven below zero, and the wind chill made going outside almost unbearable. But Kevin Sousa was elated. His Kickstarter campaign for Superior Motors had finally reached its goal of $250,000, and the contributions were still pouring in with nineteen hours left to go. Every time Sousa checked his phone, he saw dozens of new Twitter notifications letting him know that the campaign was doing better and better. He was pulling in an amount of restaurant seed money unprecedented in the history of Kickstarter, all to open a high-concept, multi-component restaurant in a seemingly hopeless place.On Pittsburgh chef Kevin Sousa's attempt to revitalize a failing steel town through food, his previous restaurants' allegedly troubled financial history, and what information is owed to Kickstarter backers about their investment. [more inside]
March First, Then Win
119 years ago, today, the unthinkable happened, as far as the Europeans were concerned. The Ethiopian army trounced the Italians in the Battle of Adwa. Headlines such as ‘Abyssinia (Ethiopia) Defeats Invading Italians’; ’80,000 Ethiopians Destroy 20,000 Italians at the Battle of Adwa’; ‘Italian Premier Crispi Resigns’; and ‘Abyssinia and Italy Sign Peace Treaty.’ peppered the European press. Adwa was placed on the world map and remained a historic story because of Ethiopia’s decisive victory against the Italian army on March 1st 1896 (Yekatit 23, 1888 according to the Ethiopian calendar).
'I am a woman. I do not like war. But I would rather die than accepting your deal."attributed to Empress Taitu Bitul*, Wife of Menelik II [more inside]
Rare Sierra Nevada Red Fox Spotted in Yosemite National Park
For the first time in 100 years, a Sierra Nevada Red Fox has been spotted at Yosemite. Scientists have estimated the total Sierra Nevada red fox population numbers below 50 (fifty). [more inside]
Zaire 74 - Return to Africa
Soul Power is a documentary produced by Jeff_Levy-Hinte about the Zaire 74 festival, a three day music festival held in Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1974 as a precursor to "The Rumble in Jungle" boxing match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. [more inside]
Aphex Waits: Tom vs Computer Control mashed up by Esmko
Eskmo took a few Tom Waits songs that he love and mashed them with Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 by Aphex Twin, and created Aphex Waits (Soundcloud with free DL; YouTube). If you'd like more weird electronic music from Eskmo, Dazed has a preview stream of his new album along with an interview about it. Then there's Eskmo's self-titled album on Grooveshark, which he released on Ninja Tune back in 2010, which lead to videos for Cloudlight [previously], We Got More [previously], and Color Dropping. He has also shared more music on Soundcloud.
Infocom and the Atomic Bomb
Over a series of nine blog posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), Jimmy Maher (previously) reviews and ruminates on Infocom's Trinity: Brian Moriarty's 1986 text adventure about the atomic bomb. Andrew Plotkin (previously) responds. If you weren't keeping up with the latest computer games in 1986, Trinity is playable online at the Internet Archive.
The $3,500 Shirt
Schiit Happened
Bowling ball shoulders
Anthony Mason, iconic Knicks player, dead at 48. Daily Beast: Soul of the 90's.
Where are they now in Sports? video interview.
Dad builds awesome snow sculptures every year
Dad builds awesome snow sculptures every year...and paints them!
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Shirley Scott, Queen of the Organ
Shirley Scott was a hard bop and soul jazz master of the Hammond B-3. She was a gifted composer, combo leader, and prolific recording artist, releasing the majority of her 40+ albums from the late 1950s to the late 1970s: [more inside]
The Weird Al Yankovic Namesake Sandwich He Never Knew He Asked For
AVclub.com asked Weird Al Yankovic, "If a deli named a sandwich after you, what would be on it?" His answer:
I’d say a fire-roasted eggplant, some roasted red peppers, diced heirloom tomatoes, some thin-sliced red onions—maybe double up on the onions and have some caramelized onions on top of the sliced onions. A little basil, some arugula, some chopped and marinated mushrooms, maybe a slice of fresh avocado, some alfalfa sprouts, a dose of hummus, a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and put it on a warm toasted French roll lovingly sprinkled with some truffle oil.Challenge accepted.
"I'm here to get what's mine." - Fox's 'Empire'
Empire is a Monster That Is Eating Network Television - Buzzfeed, Feb. 26, 2015:
"When it comes to ratings, Fox’s Empire is on a trajectory that’s unprecedented in broadcast television’s recent history, which has mostly been marked by — to appropriate a phrase from Hakeem Lyon (Bryshere Y. Gray) — drip drops, if not just plain old slaughter. As of last week, it is the No. 1 show on network television in the 18 to 49 demographic advertisers seek. And once again, the show built on its ratings this week."[more inside]
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