Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
As I recently posted, my colleagues and I at Institute for the Future hosted a conference late last year where we presented our new map, titled A Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021. The map focuses on six big stories of science that we think will play out over the next decade: Decrypting the Brain, Hacking Space, Massively Multiplayer Data, Sea the Future, Strange Matter, and Engineered Evolution. As we were conducting the research that informed the map, I was constantly reminded of Arthur C. Clark's famous quote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." After all, we were exploring real science around invisibility cloaks, quantum consciousness, designer lifeforms -- I'd say those are pretty magical concepts. That's why we were delighted when Luigi Anzivino, scientific content developer at The Exploratorium and a prestidigitator, offered to speak at our conference about the intersection of magic and neuroscience! Check out his presentation above. More presentations to come from the IFTF Future of Science conference...
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
A start-up called Organovo uses a 3D printer to build a variety of human tissue types, from cardiac muscle to blood vessels. The company hopes to eventually print entire organs for transplant from feedstock of a patient's own cells, thereby reducing the likelihood of rejection. But in the meantime, the 3D printed tissue could be used for drug testing. From Technology Review (photo Frank Rogozienski/Wonderful Machine):
Because Organovo's product is so similar to human tissue, it could help researchers identify drugs that will fail long before they reach clinical trials, potentially saving drug companies billions of dollars…<
Unlike some experimental approaches that have used ink-jet printers to deposit cells, Organovo's technology enables cells to interact with each other much the way they do in the body. They are packed tightly together and incubated, prompting them to adhere to each other and trade chemical signals.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Russian scientists grew the plants above from the innards of fruit that had been frozen for 30,000 years. From Discover:
The plant owes its miraculous resurrection to a team of scientists led by David Gilichinsky, and an enterprising ground squirrel. Back in the Upper Pleistocene, the squirrel buried the plant’s fruit in the banks of the Kolyma River. They froze.
Over millennia, the squirrel’s burrow fossilized and was buried under increasing layers of ice. The plants within were kept at a nippy -7 degrees Celsius, surrounded by permanently frozen soil and the petrifying bones of mammoths and woolly rhinos. They never thawed. They weren’t disturbed. By the time they were found and defrosted by scientists, they had been buried to a depth of 38 metros, and frozen for around 31,800 years…
Svetlana Yashina from the Russian Academy of Sciences grew the plants from immature fruits recovered from the burrow. She extracted their placentas – the structure that the seeds attach to – and bathed them in a brew of sugars, vitamins and growth factors. From these tissues, roots and shoots emerged.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Back in 2008, I posted about Neil Harbisson, an artist with complete color blindness who makes paintings like those above using a camera/computer system that translates colors into sounds. In an editorial he's just written for the BBC News, he mentions that last year he "was attacked by three policemen at a demonstration who thought I was filming them." He Tweeted about it when it happened and posted the photo at left. "I told them I was listening to colors, but they thought I was mocking them and tried to pull the camera off my head," Harbisson writes. "The man who hears colour" (Thanks, Antinous!)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Matthew Frye Jacobson, a professor of American Studies at Yale, made a gallery of hundreds of photographs of commercial buildings that have "Space Available." Indeed, that's the name of the photo series. For Jacobson, these signs are visceral representations of the economic crisis. Space Available is part of Jacobson's larger Historian's Eye project, a photographic and audio documentation of "Obama’s first term in office, the ’08 economic collapse and its fallout, two wars, the raucous politics of healthcare reform, the emergence of a new right-wing formation in opposition to Obama, the politics of immigration, Wall Street reform, street protests of every stripe, the BP oil spill, and the seeming escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment nationwide." Over at Design Observer, BB pal Rob Walker interviewed Jacobson.
From Design Observer:
The “Space Available” collection is more than 900 photographs of, basically, buildings with signs indicating vacant commercial or retail space. Let’s face it, that sounds incredibly boring. Why should we look at pictures of these mundane signs?
While there are a couple of images in it that I’m attached to, for the most part that gallery is not functioning in a way that’s meant to arrest you one image at a time. It’s the scale. There’s something cumulative about it.
I go back to the Bonnie Fox interview, where she said there’s nothing public about this crisis. And those signs were one of the few public markers she’d picked up on. Once you start noticing them, you see them everywhere you go — these massive numbers of fairly recently closed businesses. And it just goes unremarked and unnoted. Everything in the culture is privatized, including the crisis itself, right? One of the aspirations of that part of the site is to make that public again, to make it part of the public conversation about what’s happening to our society.
It’s a very hard crisis to photograph, for exactly the reasons she was talking about. I’d been out in the world trying to photograph it, and I couldn’t find it anywhere, until she tipped me to the space available signs. “Space Available” became a sub genre of its own, in my mind.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
A collaboration between artist Mark Reigelman and architect Jenny Chapman working with engineering consultant Paul Endres created a rustic cabin and installed it as a parasite on a big building in San Francisco. Too bad nobody is living in it. Yet. From Design Boom (Cesar Rubio photos):
…The structure, which measures approximately W7 x D8 x H11 feet, takes on a 19th-century architectural style. constructed from vintage building materials - it has a welded aluminum frame, with an exterior finished with 100 year-old reclaimed barn board from ohio - the dwelling is meant to be an homage to the romantic spirit of the western myth and a commentary on the arrogance of westward expansion. three curtained windows, allow the interior space of the petite abode to be seen day and night, standing as a lonely beacon in the city's dense landscape. 3 x 4 foot solar panels located on the rear roof, charge during daylight hours in order to illuminate the cabin's interior by night.
weighing over 1000 lbs.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Just this morning, I was thinking that I needed an accordion file to slip into my laptop bag. The GAMAGO gods heard my prayers and responded this afternoon with a handsome Accordion File that certainly beats manila. It is $10. GAMAGO's Accordion File
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
My friend Vann Hall received the following email from the FBI. Apparently, they caught him through their, er, track light monitoring device. Vann, I hope you can clear this up quickly!
respectively,
pesco
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ISSUES OF FRAUD CRIME AGAINST YOU
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:25:36 +0200
From: Mr Ronald Anthony (info@fbi.com)
Reply-To: (fbi-office@foxmail.com)
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
THIS IS THE (F.B.I)
http://www.fbi.gov
FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI)
Attention
This the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) We are writing in response to our track light monitoring device which we received today in our office about the illegal transactions that you have been involve in for a long time now.
We understand from our general investigations that some con men from Australia has been ripping a man off him hard earned money with the pretense of dealing with birds Company that will deliver a pet to him and the proposed amount which was to be transferred to you is the sum of $5,000,000 Usd as stated in our record here.
We also got a complain from our Australia man counterpart stating that your identity/information's was used to dupe a Australia business man to the tune of $4 Billion Usd by some Australia Fraudsters which you have been in contact with for some time now.
The German Government has ordered for your urgent arrest regarding the crimes that was committed with your name,after all the series of investigations conducted here in our office we tracked your record and we found out that you have never been jailed or had any fraudulent case that may jeopardize your image and personality.
All this information's are on record and we are going to use it against you in the world court when this case will be brought before it and we called the Australia High Commission for an urgent compensation for the bad deed that has been committed with your name.
The Australia Government has made available the sum of $950,000.00 Usd for your compensation and then we would like to inform you to stop any further communications with the con men so that you will not be brought before the law..
We also discovered that you have made some payments to them earlier for this same funds that was to be sent to you.
Don't forget that all your properties will be confiscated as soon as you are jailed because it will be believed that you got them from fraudulent and dubious business transactions like the one that you are in right now.
We have forwarded a copy of this information's to all the states crime agencies including,
National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
CrimTrac Agency, Canberra,
Crime and Corruption Commission
Crime and Misconduct Commission
Home Land Security Service.
Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
Nigerian Local Metropolitan Police (NLMP)
So all you need to do right now in other to clear your name from the scam list which has already been forwarded to our office is to secure the CLEAN BILL CERTIFICATE immediately.
This Certificate will then clear your name from the scam list and also after the Certificate has been issued to you, you will then forward it to the payment officer for the urgent transfer of your compensation funds of $950,000.00 Usd.
You are required to forward to us your private contact number for oral communications and don't forget that you will be given only 72hours to secure the CLEAN BILL CERTIFICATE or you will face the law and its consequences.
Your e-mail address is now under our e-mail track monitor, so you should make sure that you don't respond to any e-mail that is being sent to you from anybody or organization that claims to be working for the Government.
Forward the details of the payment you made to them earlier, and also all the information's/documents that was forwarded to you by those criminals that you have been in contact with for a long time now.
Also below is my attached Identity Card for your perusal.
Get back to us as soon as you receive this e-mail so that we can guild you on how to secure the Certificate within 72hours.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
A fellow named Joe, from Saskatchewan, Canada, has been digging out his basement since 2005 with a fleet of remote-control scale models of tractors and trucks. He even has a conveyor belt to move the dirt. What fun!
From Carscoop:
"I feel quite fortunate to have stumbled onto this basement excavation idea, it's been a great past time to date dreaming up new ideas to tackle different projects along the way," Joe wrote on the Scale4x4rc forums where he also posted pictures and videos of his feat.
"It's been a great hobby thus far, dreaming up - building all sorts of different miniature equipment from kits or from scratch for this "mining" project. If it wasn't for this mining project I probably would have lost of interest in this hobby by now b/c once the models are built - the novelty of how they work & perform would wear off with no task to be accomplished them," he notes in another post.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Tompkins Square records have released an exquisitely-curated collection of pre-war music exploring the timeless themes of love -- found and lost. Aimer et Perdre: To Love & To Lose, Songs, 1917-1934 is double CD set featuring music from the Cajun bayous, America's countryside, the Ukraine, and other locales near and far. You may recall that Tompkins Square are the creators of the excellent This May Be My Last Time Singing gospel compilation and also the critically-acclaimed To What Strange Place: The Music Of The Ottoman-American Diaspora 1916-1929. Produced by Christopher King and Susan Archie, Aimer et Perdre continues in the Tomkpkins tradition of releasing excellent and mostly unheard music, contextualized with insightful liner notes in beautiful packaging. And as you may have noticed from the image above, Aimer et Perdre is illustrated on the outside (and inside) with original art by the one-and-only R. Crumb. Listen to the whole first disc below. Happy Valentine's Day!
Back in 2010, Rachel Botsman wrote a book titled "What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption," which was one of the first popular riffs on what can happen when you meld financial uncertainty, eco-motivation, and social networking. Essentially, it looks at new methods of balancing surplus and need. There are lots of things that it just doesn't make sense for me to own -- a jigsaw or a cargo box for the roof of my car -- but are still very valuable to me the one or two times a year that I really really need them. During the last few years, we've posted about myriad new start-ups formed around the collaborative consumption idea, like Miki Krimmel's Neighborgoods. Since then, so many compelling businesses have sprung up in the sharing realm -- from Airbnb to Spinlister -- that Silicon Valley "super angel investor" wrote in The Economist that peer-to-peer markets are "the most thought-provoking sector I see developing in 2012." Of course, what's old is new. Shareable magazine, the publication-of-record on collaborative consumption, posted a fascinating article on the history of carpooling.
From Shareable:
Ridesharing began shortly after the introduction of the Model-T, America’s first automobile priced with for the middle-class. By the end of 1914, the US had fallen into a recession at the same time it was seeing a flood of cheap new automobiles on city streets. In San Francisco, enterprising car owners began offering seats in their cars for the same price as a street car fair, known as a jitney. Within nine months, the “jitney” craze had spread all the way to Maine.
But while the sudden explosion of carpooling demonstrated its enormous potential, it also gave rise to significant backlash as irate streetcar operators fought the new form of competition with the collusion of city and regional governments. Since then, ridesharing’s popularity has typically lived or died at the mercy of government policy. By 1918, new liability regulations succeeded in reducing ridesharing by 90%.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Probably not the best choice of font for the flag of the US Marine Corps Scout Snipers. From CNN:
The Marine Corps said it became aware of the photo last November and the local command investigated, but found it not to be racially motivated, according to a statement released by a Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton.
The unit's commander decided not to proceed with disciplinary action, it said, but all Marines in the unit were reminded that such behavior will not be tolerated and any further display could result in punishment.
"They determined that the Marines in the photo were ignorant of the connection of this symbol to the Holocaust and monumental atrocities associated with Nazi Germany," (Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. James) Amos said in his statement Friday.
UPDATE: Mother Jones interviews Iraq war veteran Waitman Beorn, who blew the whistle on the Scout Snipers' unfortunate logo. Beorn is currently a visiting history professor at Loyola University New Orleans and a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowship recipient who teaches at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
In an interesting interview at CEPro, Alan Parsons, the man who engineered Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and yes, had his own Project, says that room acoustics are far more important than audiophile gear. In fact, the interview led one Slashdot commenter to post this fine quip: "Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment." From CEPro:
What is the biggest thing that both electronics dealers and enthusiast consumers should do when setting up home theater/sound systems?
(Parsons:) You get what you pay for. But having said that, there are some decent budget surround systems you can buy at Costco or Walmart that really aren’t bad. Everybody has their budget; the hi-fi world will tell you if money is no object you can get better results out of every component - even the surface the amplifier sits on. Pro sound people have different expectations; they are only concerned that a piece of gear works and allows them to do their job. Hi-fi people spend huge amounts of money for tiny improvements, and pro sound guys will say, “I can spend half as much and get the results I need.”
I’m simply not very familiar with the latest domestic hi-fi equipment. I don’t go to hi-fi trade shows and I don’t have sophisticated equipment in the family areas of my house for music, but there are things that make sense like good speakers and a decent amp. But I dare say there would only be a small improvement if I bought a $20,000 amp. I can live with what I have.
I do think in the domestic environment, the people that have sufficient equipment don’t pay enough attention to room acoustics. The pro audio guy will prioritize room acoustics and do the necessary treatments to make the room sound right. The hi-fi world attaches less importance to room acoustics, and prioritizes equipment; they are looking more at brand names and reputation.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
The excellently-named Meshuggah is a "technical death metal" band from Sweden. While I appreciate their musical experimentation, the singer's angry growl is a bit much for me. I was delighted when my pal Patrick Kelly pointed me to this great video of Meshuggah's guitarist Fredrik Thordendal shredding with great joy along with Morgan Ågren, the drummer in Thordendahl's side project Special Defects. Those grins are infectious. As Pat says, this here is Happy Metal!
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
For many years, Jaroslav Flegr, a biologist at Pregue's Charles University, suspected that a parasite in cat feces, the same ones that can harm a pregnant woman's fetus, can actually screw up the mind of anyone who comes into contact with it. Turns out, he may be right. From Kathleen McAuliffe's excellent article in The Atlantic:
(According to Flegr,) the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”
An evolutionary biologist at Charles University in Prague, Flegr has pursued this theory for decades in relative obscurity. Because he struggles with English and is not much of a conversationalist even in his native tongue, he rarely travels to scientific conferences. That “may be one of the reasons my theory is not better known,” he says. And, he believes, his views may invite deep-seated opposition. “There is strong psychological resistance to the possibility that human behavior can be influenced by some stupid parasite,” he says. “Nobody likes to feel like a puppet. Reviewers [of my scientific papers] may have been offended.” Another more obvious reason for resistance, of course, is that Flegr’s notions sound an awful lot like fringe science, right up there with UFO sightings and claims of dolphins telepathically communicating with humans.
But after years of being ignored or discounted, Flegr is starting to gain respectability. Psychedelic as his claims may sound, many researchers, including such big names in neuroscience as Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky, think he could well be onto something. Flegr’s “studies are well conducted, and I can see no reason to doubt them,” Sapolsky tells me. Indeed, recent findings from Sapolsky’s lab and British groups suggest that the parasite is capable of extraordinary shenanigans. T. gondii, reports Sapolsky, can turn a rat’s strong innate aversion to cats into an attraction, luring it into the jaws of its No. 1 predator. Even more amazing is how it does this: the organism rewires circuits in parts of the brain that deal with such primal emotions as fear, anxiety, and sexual arousal. “Overall,” says Sapolsky, “this is wild, bizarre neurobiology.”
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
BB pal Ben Cosgrove writes:
In 1937, LIFE magazine launched the career of an up-and-coming starlet in a multiple-page photo spread that, overnight, made "Cynthia" a household name. In very short order she became an A-list celebrity; was given her own television talk show and starred on the silver screen; was sent jewels and dresses by top fashion houses; was briefly engaged to one of radio’s biggest stars; hobnobbed with the former king of England; and became one of the most recognizable faces in the fashion world.
There was only one minor catch: Cynthia was a mannequin.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Natalie LeBrecht carries the torch of New York's downtown avant grade into contemporary popular music. Recording as Greenpot Bluepot, LeBrecht melds outernational influences with vocal melodies reminiscent of Yoko Ono (with less screaming) or, as Devendra Banhart put it, an "intergalactic Nico." That makes sense, given that LeBrecht has worked closely with minimalist pioneers La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. In the late 1960s, those two set the stage for the New York music scene that linked contemporary classical music with weird performance art and, of course, birthed the Velvet Underground with whom Nico sang. Boing Boing is pleased to premier the latest Greenpot Bluepot video, directed by Brett Milspaw, for the song "Melting Sword" from the new album Ascend At The Dead End. Here's what LeBrecht told us about her musical path:
Growing up, my parents listened to pop music so that was what I was raised on. When I went to college, my tastes expanded when I studied avant-garde art theory and gained exposure to avant-garde music. Because I appreciate both traditions, I think it’s natural that I would incorporate a hybrid in my own work.
Assisting LaMonte Young & Marian Zazeela was an inspirational & enriching opportunity for me - just to have exposure to that high caliber of musicianship & artistic purity up close was a blessing. In his late 70’s, LaMonte is still an olympic-champion singer with the voice of a 30 year old. His voice is spiritually charged and powerful - yet wielded with refined subtly, control, grace & beauty. These are qualities I aspire to as a singer.
As an artist, I’ve always needed to challenge myself - even if it means I’ll fail or make something laughably bad - this is what it means to be “experimental”. The flip-side is that there's a potential to create something innovative, so it's worth trying. I created the album “Ascend At The Dead End” outside of my comfort zone, experimenting with some different variations of microtonal tuning for some of it. I also was striving to create complex compositions that seem effortless and easy to listen to.
“Melting Sword” differs from the other songs on the album in that I decided to make the music simple so that I could get in a trance and just let the voice & words flow out & do whatever they wanted with no restriction. I created & recorded it in one afternoon and it was by far the easiest song on the album to make. The vocals & lyrics were improvised in 1 1/4 takes (I re-did the ending).
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
On the heels of the official, and sadly discontinued, Mickey Mouse vs. Joy Division "Unknown Pleasures" t-shirt, culture jammers Cuboopop printed up Mickey Mouse vs. Crass shirts and shopdropped them at a Disney Store. You can also purchase them online for a very limited time directly from Cubopop.(Thanks KevinVanCamper, via Submitterator!)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Schreer Delights is selling these fun iPhone cases until, as Gizmodo writes, they get "sued into oblivion." I dig the Mac Classic model but I would prefer a faux Netwon case, like the one someone sketched out a couple years ago. Schreer Delights(Thanks, Ari Pescovitz!)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Could the Death Star really destroy a planet? Back in 2008, I posted that astrophysicist and mathematician Jeanne Cavelos, author of The Science of Star Wars, speculated that indeed, the Death Star could be that deadly. Last year, another group of scientists published a paper addressing the same question. And these researchers from the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy came to the same conclusion. According to the paper abstract, "A simplified planet is used giving an energy required to destroy as 2 x 1027 J. Since the Death Star's power source has a much greater energy output it is feasible to destroy a planet with such a space station." Of course, such a space station doesn't exist. But, well, yeah. "That's No Moon" (PDF, via Astrobiology Magazine)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Steve Albini, guitar genius of Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac, and producer of albums by Nirvana, The Pixies, and hundreds of other bands, is also a delightful food blogger who posts recipes he makes for his wife Heather. Last week, he cooked these yummy-looking saffron potato cashew pancakes. The blog is called mariobatalivoice. Albini says, "The name comes from the way I bring her food in bed and present it to her using an imitation of Mario Batali's voice from TV." mariobatalivoice(Thanks, UPSO!)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Above is video of the incredible Serpent Twins, two slithering vehicles created by the incredibly talented maker couple Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate. You may recall that Jon and Kyrsten are the creators of such exquisite biomechanical transports as the Golden Mean snail car that I wrote about in MAKE here and the zippy Electrobyte trilobite car. The Serpent Twins are in the running for the Boca Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition grand prize of $10,000 that will be awarded to the best "innovative mechanical project that utilizes ball bearings, roller bearings, linear bearings or any form of full ceramic or ceramic hybrid bearings anywhere in the application." Jon and Kyrsten say that if they win they'll use the prize money to "buy a stacker trailer to transport our beasts to events like Maker Faire, schools, and festivals to inspire the next generation of artists, engineers and makers." All I can say is that they have my vote.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
In the latest episode of The Midnight Archive, the show's creator Ronni Thomas shares his own collection of 19th century 3D devil tissues. Also known as diableries, they're a particularly unique species of hand-painted color stereogram depicting "Satan's daily life in hell," as Thomas says. "Stereoscopic Terror"
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
We've posted before here and here about Hashima Island, aka Gunkanjima ("Battleship Island") off the coast of Nagasaki that from 1887 to 1974 was a coal mining facility but is now a compound of abandoned, crumbling concrete buildings. Web designer, Japanese teacher, and urban explorer Gakuranman managed to visit and take some wonderful photos of the Ballardian built environment in its glorious decay. From Gakuranman:
By 1974.. petroleum came in place of coal, the mines were shut down and the now jobless workers were forced to leave. In a matter of days the island was deserted – everything left exactly as it was, to slumber eternally in the same position like a broken clock face.
Since then visitors have been prohibited to land on this haikyo (ruined) island. Right up until April 2009, anyway. The landing ban on Hashima was lifted and the first tourist boats in years were to be allowed to land. My dream of secretly chartering a boat and infiltrating the place under cover of night was dashed.
They made it into a tourist attraction?? How could they!?
But my disappointment was not to last. While it is true that it is no longer illegal to land on the island through the designated tours, it is still prohibited to for individuals to explore deep inside. All the interesting places like the well-known ‘Stairway to Hell’ or ‘Block 65′ may as well be invisible for all the view you’ll get from behind those shiny white safety bars. Yes, it was clear no tourist trip was going to satisfy my curiosity to walk the corridors of a 100-year old structure. Live site or not, I needed to get inside those concrete relics.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
The Caretaker, who I've posted about before, is the alter-ego of musician James Kirby who composes gorgeous haunted music by cutting up, processing, and looping vintage 78s. His last album as The Caretaker, "An Empty Bliss Beyond This World," themed around memory and amnesia, is one of my favorite albums of last year. The Caretaker has just released a new album, a soundtrack to Grant Gee's just-completed documentary film about the German writer WG Sebald. The Caretaker and Sebald are a natural pairing, as both of their work deals with memory (personal and cultural), lost histories, and decay. The soundtrack, titled "Patience (After Sebald)," was composed from public domain 1927 recordings of Franz Schubert's music, including his most famous song cycle for voice and piano, Winterreise. Once again, The Caretaker has created a gorgeous album that will transport you into a dreamlike state that may remind you of The Shining's haunted ballroom scenes, which was one of Kirby's inspirations. Above is a track from "Patience (After Sebald)." (The video is unrelated, but I think it's a nice fit.) I purchased my LPs by The Caretaker at San Francisco's Aquarius Records. More details on The Caretaker's releases at Kirby's History Always Favours The Winners site.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
No Good Deed is a new multimedia play in Los Angeles that melds a graphic novel with live theater. Created by the edgy, experimental Furious Theatre Company -- including my brother Robert Pescovitz -- No Good Deed is a classic, dark superhero story of good and evil injected with the cultural criticism that is Furious' modus operandi. The live production, written by Matt Pelfrey and directed by Dámaso Rodriguez, employs projected illustrations, intense fight choreography, and compelling characters to immerse the viewer in the action. And if you're thinking that sounds like Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, here's what industry mag TalkinBroadway wrote, "I want to hold this production up to the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark and say, 'This is how you put a graphic novel on stage." No Good Deed is actually the first story in an ongoing narrative that continues with Hellbound Heroes, a print comic with art by Ben Matsuya. You can grab a copy by donating $5 to Furious Theatre. The play runs until February 26 and Furious has kindly offered Boing Boing a discount code to save $5 on admission. Just enter BoingBoing as the coupon code when you purchase tickets here!
Nick Cernoch leads the cast as Josh Jaxon, a conflicted and abused high-school student that must deal with a major change in his social status. As both a hero and antihero, Cernoch easily makes a bold transition feel natural. He guides Jaxon away from an appropriately subdued modality as a bullied kid to an energized, engaging and exciting alter-ego realized through a drug-induced multi-dimensional fantasy.
Shawn Lee and Troy Metcalf play Jaxon's "fucking-with-crime" sidekicks Bryant Feld and Danny Diamond. As Feld, Lee is a charismatic and commanding actor that often drives pulsed tension on stage. Metcalf renders Diamond as a sympathy-drawing underling, beautifully executing Diamond's most tragic scene and delivering the best performance of the show. Finally, Robert Pescovitz renders the role of Jaxon's frightening step-father with impressive authenticity.
The complex staging of No Good Deed must be a nightmare to direct, but Damaso Rodriguez smoothly orchestrates the entire production with raw grace and a little kitsch. In fact, Rodriguez has crafted an indie-version of Broadway's Spiderman, minus all of the Spiderman failures, of course. Brian Danner's fight choreography is perfectly executed, conceptualized and is a huge audience draw. Scenic design of John Icovelli, costuming by Christy Hauptman, graphic design of Ben Matsuya and original music composition of Doug Newell contribute tremendously in capturing the essence of a great comic book.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
I had missed this sad news, but Dick Tufeld, the man who gave Robby the Robot his voice on Lost In Space, died last month. He was 85. Along with his famous catchphrase "Danger, Will Robinson!" and the intro to Lost In Space, Tufield's voice was also heard at the beginning of "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea." Dick Tufeld(IMDB, thanks Charles Pescovitz!)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Here is OK Go's excellent video for "Needing/Getting." And yes, it was done "in partnership" with the maker of that particular car. According to the video description, the car "was outfitted with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and the band recorded this version of Needing/Getting, singing as they played the instrument array with the car… There are no ringers or stand-ins; Damian took stunt driving lessons. Each piano had the lowest octaves tuned to the same note so that they'd play the right note no matter where they were struck."
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Andreas Gursky "Union Rave" (1995)
In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke wrote ""Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living." That's no longer true. These days, there are apparently 15 dead for every living person. Still, the living clearly do not outnumber the dead. Not even close, according to new research from the Population Reference Bureau. according to new research from the Population Reference Bureau. The TL;DR is that "There are currently seven billion people alive today and the Population Reference Bureau estimates that about 107 billion people have ever lived," according to a BBC News article. Of course, the vast majority of history is based on educated guesses. The first homo sapiens weren't too interested in acquiring census data. It wasn't until the 18th century or so that the best ongoing data was collected about such things. "Do the dead outnumber the living?" (BBC News)
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Last month, I posted about the gorgeous droning ambient music of From The Mouth of the Sun. People really seemed to dig it! Carter Gunn created this video for their track "Sitting In A Roofless Room" from video footage courtesy of the fantastic Prelinger Archive. The song is on From The Mouth of The Sun's new album, Woven Tide, which you can listen to right here. And you can purchase it directly from Experimedia.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
An Icelandic man captured video of what some suggest is the Lagarfljótsormur, a lake monster residing in the lake Lagarfljót in the eastern part of the country. Others suggest it's a fishing net. I prefer the former. Stories of the Lagarfljótsormur date back to 1345. From Iceland Review Online:
According to legend, it was at first a tiny worm which was placed on a ring of gold to make the gold grow.
When the owner of the ring returned she noticed to her great terror that the worm had grown immensely but not the gold. She tossed the ring and worm into Lagarfljót where the worm continued to grow.
UPDATE: Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman says "Frankly, this video shows something that looks like a constructed snake-like object, with rigid sections, being propelled through the water." "Iceland River Monster? Or Robotic Hoax?"
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
This is a Sol LeWitt yarmulke created by the Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek temple in Chester, Connecticut. LeWitt, a member of the congregation, helped design the temple. "Sol LeWitt Kippah" (Thanks, Jill Miller!)
UPDATE: My pal Stacey Ransom found the original color photo of this fine resin/fiber piece, titled "Visual Temperature - Sofa," by Cao Hul, and posted it to her Tumblr, Held 4 Ransom.
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
In 1969, Fluxus artist/musician Takehisa Kosugi formed the Taj Mahal Travelers, an octet of Japanese musicians whose used traditional instruments like violin, double bass, tuba, trumpet, and mandolin in non-traditional ways and run through early electronic effects systems. Their compelling drone improvisations were decidedly different and, to my ears, more unsettling than the other avant-garde drone sounds of the era coming from the New York City axis of Tony Conrad, John Cale, and La Monte Young. In the book Japrocksampler, Julian Cope describes the Taj Mahal Travelers' music as "reminiscent of the creaking rigging of the un-manned Mary Celeste." The excellent Taj Mahal Travelers live albums titled "August 1974" and "July 15, 1972" have just been reissued on vinyl. I picked mine up from Experimedia in the US. Here are samples from the albums:
Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.
Punk artist Mike Kelley, a force in contemporary art for more than three decades, has died. He was 57. From the Los Angeles Times:
Writing in Slate in 2005, novelist Jim Lewis said: "I think I could walk into any collection in the world and spot the Mike Kelley piece immediately (and this despite his many imitators)... You can tell the Kelley work because it's the stuff that itches, the stuff that reeks, the stuff that looks like it needs a good bath."
Or, as Times art critic Christopher Knight wrote in 1994, "Kelley is an avatar of the power and humanity inherent in recognizing the radical impurity of human experience. His art searches out dark and soiled places where defects, fault lines and inadequacies are obvious and routine, and where failure takes on the poignant, fragile, even heartbreaking beauty that accompanies any loss of self."
As I recently posted, my colleagues and I at Institute for the Future hosted a conference late last year where we presented our new map, titled A Multiverse of Exploration: The Future of Science 2021. The map focuses on six big stories of science that we think will play out over the next decade: Decrypting the Brain, Hacking Space, Massively Multiplayer Data, Sea the Future, Strange Matter, and Engineered Evolution. As we were conducting the research that informed the map, I was constantly reminded of Arthur C. Clark's famous quote, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." After all, we were exploring real science around invisibility cloaks, quantum consciousness, designer lifeforms -- I'd say those are pretty magical concepts. That's why we were delighted when Luigi Anzivino, scientific content developer at The Exploratorium and a prestidigitator, offered to speak at our conference about the intersection of magic and neuroscience! Check out his presentation above. More presentations to come from the IFTF Future of Science conference...
Back in 2008, I 
Tompkins Square records have released an exquisitely-curated collection of pre-war music exploring the timeless themes of love -- found and lost. 
(According to Flegr,) the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”
Growing up, my parents listened to pop music so that was what I was raised on. When I went to college, my tastes expanded when I studied avant-garde art theory and gained exposure to avant-garde music. Because I appreciate both traditions, I think it’s natural that I would incorporate a hybrid in my own work.
Could the Death Star really destroy a planet? Back in 2008, I 
I had missed this sad news, but Dick Tufeld, the man who gave 
This is a Sol LeWitt yarmulke created by the Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek temple in Chester, Connecticut. LeWitt, a member of the congregation, helped design the temple. "
