Vinyl Lives On

YES! Vinyl is still going strong and is actually been on a steady increase for the last decade and especially these last few years as CD sales plummet. There's about a dozen legit vinyl manufacturing companies still around in the US and they've all doing well. I'm looking forward to talking to these guys and wish them much success! In the meantime watch another good video about how records are made. They only talk briefly about the process but it's still amazing to watch...if you ever get the chance to actually see it in person, DO IT!! I've only visited one plant so far but will visit more when I'm in those areas. If you have any questions about the record making process, feel free to ask me. Or, better yet, ask them!

If you live in the Cleveland area they'll even show you their plant!! Gotta Groove Records

Birds play guitar better than most people

For an upcoming show at the Barbican Art Gallery, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot has set up an environment for finches to be musicians. By setting up electric guitars to be the only perches for the birds to stand and play on, they are left with little choice but to make music. What's astonishing is that the little birds seem to enjoy it and try to enhance the sound more by using sticks. This is a fascinating exploration into the relationship of music to all living things in the world. I would love to see this but unfortunately I don't think I will be in London anytime in the near future.

I am SO anxious for this

If there's one thing that REALLY annoys me it's wires! Yeah, it seems silly since we think that we need them. In my mind, even as a kid, I thought there must be a way to transmit electricity with out wires or at least figure out a better way to power our appliances and gadgets. Well, as luck/fate would have it, Marin Soljacic at MIT has finally got the technology at a point where it will be widely available in the next few years!! I first heard about this a couple years ago on MIT's Technology Review website (it's one of my favorite sites! yeah, so what I'm a nerd.) but at the time it was big and impractical. In addition to just making sense and being more convenient, this could have major impact from an environmental perspective. Of course, companies will not stop putting wires on products anytime soon but in the future we will hopefully see a dramatic decrease in the use of PVC & copper for wires. Wires actually account for a major percentage of PVC consumption. There's also the environmental perspective of just how an area looks. whether in your house or on the street, wires are an unsightly eyesore. Think about how much better Tokyo will look without the wires everywhere!

I could go on and on about this but read about it more on his company's website- WiTricity

Lightworks

This video is INCREDIBLE!!!! Light art stop motion animation by Dee Pee Studios. Just WOW!!

Oh baby!

An amazing glipse inside (literally) the life cycle of other mammals.
More pictures can be found > HERE <

More flat speakers?!?!

Just a couple of months ago I posted THESE amazing flat speakers coming out of Taiwan. And now I see these that were actually published even earlier. I think the ones from Taiwan will actually sound better though but still these are amazing!

A groundbreaking new loudspeaker, less than 0.25mm thick, has been developed by University of Warwick engineers, it's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear.

Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.

Read the full article > HERE <

Birds, in concert

This is the first time I've really seen this phenomenon on video. Too bad it's such low quality but still beautiful to watch. There's a photographer, I think Italian, who does some great black & white photos of this sort of thing too. Sorry, couldn't find the name in the few minutes I had to post this...was in Seed Magazine about 6 issues ago.

Flat paper speakers..the future of sound?

If you're slightly crazy like me, you've thought about the possibility of flat, flexible speakers and if you're even partially out there you've considered paper speakers. Well, our dreams our becoming a reality. Scientists in Taiwan have developed a flexible paper speaker by sandwiching paper and CNTs together.

”Aside from use in family, stereo, or automobile hi-fi equipment, it can also be used in earphones or for industrial antinoise purposes,” says Johnsee Lee, president of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where the technology has been under development since 2006.

The device, named fleXpeaker, is basically a sandwich of paper and metal filled with an electroactive polymer that contracts and expands with an audio signal’s electric field.

”It’s soft [and can] easily fit in different curves,” says Ming-Daw Chen, division director of ITRI’s Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories. ”Therefore, the product customization can be done in diverse fields, such as art for public facilities, interior design,...costume accessories, and others.”

I doubt these will ever fully replace traditional cone speakers but for many applications these will hopefully become the standard.
Read more about it >HERE<

Lego my video

Where do people find time to do these things!!?? Oh yeah, I forgot, some people don't have to actually work or pay bills...or just neglect everything to make awesome lego videos like this for 1,500 hours!! (or roughly 4 months of full-time work.

Music In My Head

I hope I never need hearing aids but now at least there are options to make my hearing as good or possibly better than before. Plus, I can have music right in my ears via external source- MP3 player, radio, etc... These are attched to your bone behind your ear via small titanium screws that sense vibrations. So, it's basically like dolphins' ears (which have some of the best sense of hearing in all of the animal kingdom by the way). Read more and get your nerd on >
HERE<.

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know this is a little late but I wanted it to be proper and not just a sentence or 2 and 1 song. Nothing against those that did that but as a blog with a main focus on music I think this post deserved more attention.

For most of us soul music fans, aficianados and DJs the last few weeks has been somewhat emotional to say the least. I just wanted to take a couple minutes to reflect. I'll start by saying that I wasn't an obsessed fan like some people are but that I appreciate good music for what it is no matter who it's by. I can say that Michael did have a considerable influence on me as a young kid and of course as a DJ. When I was 6 years old I remember trying to recreate the video for 'Bad' with my friends and play that album back to back on my friends' boombox that was literally about the size of us.

As a DJ of course Michael got PLENTY of play. I think most DJs would agree that the MJ requests did get a bit ridiculous at times and you wished you could go a few gigs without playing anything by MJ. But at the same time you loved making all the ladies happy and also loved playing the forgotten MJ & Jackson 5 songs or just playing their classics in different ways. Don't lie..you know you've played New Edition's 'Candy Girl' just before or after 'I Want You Back'. The point is that there was no escaping the genius of Michael Jackson, he was THAT good! Most of you DJs reading this have probably worn out at least 2 copies each of Off The Wall and Thriller. The constant stream of excellent remixes also kept him at the forefront for many DJs and admittedly, I usually only played remixes of certain songs more than the originals. The 4 Hero remix of ♪"Get It Together", the Todd Terje remix of ♪"I Can't Help It" and the Sean Smith vs. Karu remix of ♪"The Mirrors" are a few of my favorites.

There is no denying that Michael Jackson was a weird guy and struggled with a lot of inner conflict and pain. Yet through all of his personal pain he always gave back to the world. Essentially, he sacrificed his life to giving enjoyment to others through music. No matter what he did, he always gave a lot too the world and was genuinely a good person. Perhaps to his disadvantage he was not too good at explaining himself in interviews. True, he shouldn't need to explain himself but when in the spotlight he was very different off stage. Unfortunately the American tabloids and 'news' media helped to crush his main stream popularity here in the US which caused him to spend a lot of time in other parts of the world.

From the first allegation in 1993, the child molestation charges damaged him severely and I think hurt him immensely. I never believed it. As weird as he was, he was no child molester. Michael Jackson is a man that devoted millions of dollars and thousands of hours of personal time to do good things for children and especially children who had special needs. Children meant the world to him and he truly just wanted to help kids to be kids and prolong a period of innocence. He was often critical of the media for corrupting children too young and honestly just wanted to do for others what he was not able to have as a youth. Every sunday at his Neverland ranch was a free day for children, often from hospitals and charities, to come there and just be kids and feel loved. No individual has personally donated more and been involved with more charities than Michael Jackson. (most famous people are not donating personal money) The American media usually neglected to speak of all the good things the man did around the world...good news isn't really 'news' in America anymore. I can't imagine how hurt I'd be knowing that I only did good in the world and to then be villified. Behind the plastic surgeries, drug addiction and stardom was a good human suffering inside.

The man was a musical GENIUS..absolute prodigy. Most brilliant minded people experience some suffering so maybe it's no surprise that Michael Jackson was a bit 'out there'. It's well known that, similar to Motzart, he heard entire songs in his head before they were recorded and would tape record himself beatboxing, humming and describing every nuance. Even more amazing was his humility and respect for people he worked with and is also known as being one of the best people in music to work with.

Selfishly, most of us would like to have seen MJ live a full life. At the same time people can find solace knowing that he is not suffering. Michael Jackson dedicated his existence to the world through music and humanitarian efforts and we can all learn from his examples, both the good ones and the bad ones. On that note, here's some of the hundreds of great examples of his musical genius.

A great forum of people sharing stories about Michael Jackson > HERE <

Here's a good clip of MJ showing his process of how he starts a song and his writing/anti-writing process...dude was an ILL beatboxer! check it out > HERE <

?uestlove's 132 Michael Jackson memories is good too. Check it out HERE.

Artie Wayne, life long friend of Michael Jackson and all around everything man (seriously, Artie Wayne has done more than you ever will) has posted some good stories and even a lost song he did with Michael.

The Jackson 5 “Body Language” video

In no particular order:

I Want You Back by The Jackson 5


I Wanna Be Where You Are by Michael Jackson


It's Great To Be Here by The Jackson 5


The Mirrors by The Jackson 5


Workin' Day And Night by Michael Jackson


Baby Be Mine by Michael Jackson


I Can't Help It by Michael Jackson


Human Nature by Michael Jackson


We're Almost There by The Jackson 5

Longest Solar Eclipse of the 21st Century

Ok, back from a little hiatus....I'll be posting a lot over the next couple weeks though to make up for it. I've seen and heard a ton of great things to share but let's start with something that will only happen once in our lifetime. If I had the money I would have flown over there just to witness that.

On July 22 was the longest solar eclipse the earth will witness this century. Unless you were in the right part of Asia you would not be able to see it though. You can find out more about the event from NASA. Speaking of NASA, this eclipse also comes at the same time of the 40th anniversary of NASA pulling off the greatest hoax in history. (the alleged moon landing...ugh, don't get me started on that!!)



(I love this picture by Rajesh Kumar Singh)

(this one by Altaf Qadri is really nice too)

Love Light in Flight

I didn't even know there was a video for this until just now. If I ever saw it as a young'n I don't remember and probably didn't even like it back then. This has become one of my favorite songs by Stevie though...too bad the sound quality sucks here because the mix and mastering on this is phenomenal.



Ok...I'd feel bad if you couldn't actually hear the song so I took the time to add this for you.

Stevie Wonder "Love Light In Flight

Virtual tours of...anywhere!

These images are from the virtual aerial tour done for New York by Australian based firm PixelCase. They specialize in this kind of work and I have to say that I'm super impressed. It's quite amazing really. The distortion features are cool but for some views can be a distraction. Anyway, imagine what the future of this will be!

Check this out for yourself >> HERE <<

More wooden turntables

Remember those dope handmade Audiowood by turntables by FiveTen Studio I posted a few months ago? Well if, not just click that link and check out these other ones by Thai artist/designer DEr' (maybe someone can help with the translation and tell me a little more about him, his design statement or just something worth knowing. In the meantime, those of us that do not understand Thai can just admire the craftsmanship and the idea of turntables as furniture.

See more at Passion Turntable

BrazilaJazzaDiscoFunkaFusion

WHOA! This is a monster tune! I'd expect nothing less from an early eighties Hungarian jazz/fusion group named Dimenzió. Unfortunately, I do not own this record and have not heard the rest of the album yet. From what I could learn this album, Pepita, is the only album they released. Someone should really buy this record for me! This is the kind of music that vinyl was made for.

Bamba

Advanced beauty

This is one of the best things I've seen in the past year. At first glance it just seems like some cool graphics and sound...fair enough. What's fascinating though is that every piece in this series was made using the Processing programming language. The project is curated by the design studio Universal Everything (which does some really nice stuff) and musician Freeform. This is only 2 short clips from the series. Here's an excerpt from the Advanced Beauty website:

"The films embrace unusual video making processes, the visual programming language Processing, high-end audio analysis and fluid dynamic simulations alongside intuitive responses in traditional cell animation. Each artist was given the same set of parameters to work within; to start, finish and exist within a white space, creating a seamless coherence, all sculptures sharing the same white environment."

Ball-Nogues

I really like this firms' work. Their use and understanding of materials & technology to make temporary installations that leave a long-lasting impression on patrons is very impressive. The way they transform a space with form, color and light & shadow is brilliant.

See more of their work at their site- Ball-Nogues Studio

The Listening Room

WOW! Remember the cardboard sound cube I posted a while back? (here) Well this is a similar idea just waaaay better! This piece was an installation for 100% Design Tokyo and co-designed by two amazing firms from Amsterdam, Elastik Architecture and Mat Studio. Together these firms transformed a standard shipping container into a very unique and personal aural experience that is meant to be a blissful retreat in contrast to the turmoil of this high profile event in Tokyo.

go to SoundCatch.net for more information and pictures.

DJs x Mozart

This is amazing! It takes the idea of the DJ being the maestro to a whole new level. I don't know why there are no turntables though.? These pictures are of the Baby Grand Master. Yes, they this company also makes a Grand Master model! This will be my upgrade from the DJ desk I'm getting from Metro Farm (view post)

Get more info and view more pics at Gardner Post's website >HERE<