Maggie and Terre Roche started performing professionally in the late '60s, just a little late for the folkie boom but also a bit too distinctive to blend easily with the singer-songwriters of the early '70s, even when they became acolytes of Paul Simon and recorded backup vocals on There Goes Rhymin' Simon
. By 1975, they had their own album on CBS, with tracks produced by Simon (and backed by the Oak Ridge Boys and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section) and ex-Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith... Seductive Reasoning is not completely a folk nor a country album, which no doubt hurt its commercial potential... Songs such as "West Virginia", "Down the Dream", and "The Mountain People" touch on early joy and disillusionment/disappointment, while "Jill of All Trades" and "The Burden of Proof" reflect a few more years of life under one's belt and the smoothing out that can come with them. "Underneath the Moon" and "Wigglin' Man"... are more straightforward getting-laid songs, funny as hell... while several of their albums have been as good as Seductive Reasoning
, none were better. Nor did they have to be. -
Todd Mason (previously) [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Dec 16, 2011 -
29 comments
You must have heard about
frisbee, a flying disc based pastime, haven't you? Throwing a flying disc can be more exciting than you think. You can try to break one of the
world records (there's a record for 1-year olds and a challenge for 102+ years old women). Alternatively, you can play some competitive
games, including some well known ones like
ultimate and some you probably haven't heard about:
buttgutts,
a game of immense skill played between two teams of one to ten players each. The objective is to hit the oppostition's butts with discs.
posted by kamil_antosiewicz
on Oct 12, 2011 -
17 comments
August and September 2011 mark 34 years in
the journeys of
Voyager 1 and 2. The two scientific probes, progeny of the
Mariner program, were sent out to survey this solar system and beyond.
Voyager 2 completed the
Grand Tour in 2009 (excluding Pluto), and
Voyager 1 is getting closer to interstellar space (
previously). Both scientific probes were sent out in with
a time capsule from 1977,
golden records secured in plain view on the outside of the Voyager Spacecraft. These
greetings from earth (alt links: Coral Cache, Archive.org) were recorded in the form of 116 images,
a collection of sounds of this planet,
greetings in
55 languages (
YT),
27 songs from around the world, and
brain waves of Ann Druyan, then recently
engaged to Carl Sagan. For all that work, the
"Mix Tape of the Gods" almost didn't get sent into space because of some last-minute writing in the run-outs.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Aug 5, 2011 -
26 comments
Four years after being spawned Fraser River Sockeye salmon return to the same creeks in which they were born to mate, spawn and die. Salmon have a strong preference for heavier returns every four years. Prior to 1913 this cycle peaked every second odd year (IE: 1905 - 1909 - 1913). However in 1913 (a year that had a record high 31 million fish harvested) construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway along side the Frasier river resulted in massive rock slides that
prevented most of the returning fish from making it to their ancestral streams. Clean up efforts in subsequent years and the construction of fish ladders at Hell's Gate saved the Salmon from extinction and switched peaked returns to every second even year (IE: 2010 - 2014 - 2018) but numbers of fish returning were way down.
Until now. This year's projected returns are the highest since 1913's record year and not far short of it. This is bound to make the organizers of
Salute to the Sockeye very happy.
[more inside]
posted by Mitheral
on Aug 25, 2010 -
37 comments
London Lives 12 London archives – digitised, marked up and tagged – to "create a comprehensive electronic edition of primary sources on criminal justice and the provision of poor relief and medical care in eighteenth-century London".
The
Lives page is a good place to start browsing.
[related]
posted by unliteral
on Jun 8, 2010 -
8 comments
Dave Lamoureux’s kayak, named Fortitude, must be the only one in Massachusetts registered as a motor vessel. That’s because a powerboat registration is required to get a permit to fish for tuna here.... His most recent catch, on Nov. 5, was a 157-pound bluefin, a record tuna for an unassisted kayak fisherman, and a near record over all, topped only by a 183-pound halibut caught by Howard McKim, an Alaskan, in 2004.
posted by caddis
on Nov 23, 2009 -
49 comments
Collectors of
78rpm records are a breed unto themselves. Obsessively scouring the flea markets of the world in search of
sonic treasures from yesteryear, they are a big part of the reason we can today enjoy so much wonderful old music. One such collector who's bringing some of his finds to the internets, sharing with us his scratchy old audio ghosts from eras long gone, is
Johnny Bitterman. Currently up on his audio player is
You Gonna Look Like a Monkey When You Get Old, along with 3 other tunes for your listening/downloading pleasure. You'll also find there a fabulous gallery of photographs featuring lovely old labels from many of his discs.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Nov 25, 2007 -
22 comments
George Perry, a poor 19 year old farmer, set the world all-tackle record for large mouth bass in 1932, when he caught a 22 pound, 4 ounce bass in Montgomery Lake, Georgia.
It's a good story -- he was a poor farmer, he and his buddy only had one lure, it was during the Depression, and the fish was not caught for sport but for food. Furthermore, it was only weighed as an afterthought, after he was told that
Field and Stream had a big bass contest that paid a $75 prize. Amazingly, that record has stood for over 73 years. In the interim, sport fishing for bass has become widely popular around the world, a multi-billion dollar market served by its own
retail establishments,
tournament tour,
TV shows, corporate sponsorships, and legions of amateur fisher-men and -women, all trying to catch a bass bigger than the one George Perry caught back in 1932.
On Monday, after years of trying, a trio of San Diego fisherman hooked a 25 pound, 1 ounce fish that may have broken that record. (Includes picture of obscenely huge large mouth bass.) And they let it go, passing up potentially millions of dollars in endorsements.
And their decision to release the fish and not pursue the record is the real story here.
posted by mosk
on Mar 23, 2006 -
24 comments
Ellen Macarthur is trying to break the solo round-the-world sailing record. From
her website you can see stills and videos while she’s enroute, and track her progress. Meanwhile, the
Vendee Globe is underway, with 20 sailors racing a similar course – also nonstop, and with no outside assistance allowed. The first solo nonstop circumnavigation was only 35 years ago, and the record has gone from
313 days to 72. It’s the slow way around, to be sure, and that’s probably why only
a few dozen people have done it.
posted by Framer
on Jan 5, 2005 -
5 comments
Is there a Moore's Law for roller coasters? Ohio's own
Cedar Point has announced it's newest record-breaking roller coaster - the Top Thrill Dragster. Here are the high points (pun intended):
- a 420-foot tower - the first coaster ever to top 400 feet
- top speed of 120mph - in 4 seconds
- a 90-degree turn at the top of the tower and an almost vertical drop back down
Downside - the whole thing lasts a mere 30 seconds. But I bet it's a fun 30 seconds. Can't wait to go.
posted by starvingartist
on Jan 9, 2003 -
58 comments
