Tapir Day? Just missed it!

We just missed another global event: Tapir Day! Tapirs are very pleasant creatures to be around - very calming. Some wildlife parks and zoos keep them; sadly the way things are going, they will only exist in captivity.

Videos and photos don’t tend to do them justice but this one is not too bad.

R.I.P: Bebe Barron, Tristram Cary

Bebe Barron died on 20th April, at the age of (most sources say) 82. With her then husband Louis, she created the still stunningly unique electronic soundtrack to the classic science fiction film Forbidden Planet. This news item from Variety is refreshingly to the point. Refer to the usual sources for a selection of facts and hype - but the Barrons were genuine pioneers in electronic music, and their legacy of work remains in a class of its own.

Not so widely reported is the fact that just a few days later, on the 24th April, Tristram Cary died, also at the age of 82. He created music using tape, electronics and scores for conventional acoustic instruments, and coincidentally we were enjoying his soundtrack to the original appearance of the Daleks in an episode of vintage Dr Who from 1963 just last week. This posting seems informative although it concerns itself particularly with Tristram Cary’s cartoon soundtracks. Other posts mention his role in the British synthesiser manufacturer EMS, whereas the BBC describes him as “the Murray Gold of his day”, predictably missing the salient points entirely. More helpfully the Music Thing site links to an old but relevant documentary called What the Future Sounded Like. Let’s watch it now. And then we should watch Forbidden Planet yet again, to remind ourselves of what the future used to look like too, back in the days when at least some of the time people looked forward to it!

R.I.P.

Information wants to be fixed

It would be nice if the leeches who run lyrics sites could spare some time from copying content from each other to run a spell-checker occasionally. And does Google need to index all of them, since they are practically mirrors of each other?

Maybe we are being unfair. Maybe songs do contain words such as “watchibg” and the people who work on lyrics sites are the only ones with hearing acute enough to realise, so naturally they all end up with identically strange accounts of lyrics. Surely they wouldn’t just copy other sites’ content in order to attract revenue from advertising? Surely not.

Perhaps they have the same kind of ear wax build-up, or arthritis of a very unusual kind that contorts fingers into mistyping in quite predictable ways.

We should not jump to conclusions and instead think the best of people. However, we will keep watchibg for clues.

The economics of “true fans”

The Technium gets ambient musician Robert Rich’s thoughts on “The Reality of Depending on True Fans”. He raises some interesting points.

The following is mentioned in passing:

Companies can use demographic models and track people’s search patterns to pander to their initial tastes and to strengthen those tastes, rather than broaden their horizons.

We are definitely more interested in new horizons and get puzzled by otherwise reviews (of our releases or anyone else’s) that say that a recording is perhaps “not for everyone” - as if anything other than air can be (that’s “air” with a small “a”, not “Air” the (French) band of course). Well, anyway, Robert Rich is a “big name” from where we’re standing but apparently even he won’t always get more than 30 people to turn out to his gigs. Bear that in mind the next time someone starts ranting that musicians should (sic) survive on T-shirt sales and playing live…
Another quote:

I feel in retrospect like I snuck in under the collapsing framework of independent distribution, at a time where small companies could cast a medium-sized fishing net, to catch the interest of listeners who would otherwise never have known they liked this type of music.

So, the Robert Riches of tomorrow should not give up the day job, since they will need it to support their musical activities.. but for those who can find the time outside work, there is unprecedented musical freedom since pandering to an audience is no longer a requirement. Of course, having basic consideration for some sort of audience (real or potential or hypothetical) is polite and a precaution against total self-indulgence. Well, read that article if you haven’t yet - it’s more interesting than this!

Worried about Firefox

It’s been oh, at least 20 minutes since it last wanted to install an update.

Yes, “20 minutes” is a gross exaggeration. So are most of the
“updates”…

“Earth Day”? It was?

Oh. Well. Apparently there is this thing called ‘Earth Day’ but it was yesterday. Oh. According to the relevant Web site, “1,000,000,000 people worldwide” were planning to take part in Events. So we hope you enjoyed one of these Events if you happened to chance across one or are better informed than we are (despite our continual drip feeding on RSS bulletins…).

Argh! And now there are only 10 minutes (GMT) left to participate in F*ck the Earth Day - which is apparently today (GMT) so let’s just watch this 2 minute (local time) video while there is still time…

“modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent”

From The Independent: Exposed: the great GM crops myth:

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

read more… and certainly read this:

Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger.

Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: “The simple answer is no.”

Will they now stop this insanity? No. Because it never was to do with feeding the hungry. It’s about control. Control over the very nature of the world we live in, absolute control over us all.

“A vivid aural journey”

Thanks to Connexion Bizarre for their review of the debut album by Abominations of Yondo.

“Abominations Of Yondo remains engaging throughout, easily grabbing the listener’s attention and imagination, taking him on a vivid aural journey.”

You can read the full review on their site… or just go ahead and download the album if you haven’t already done so!