Dr Matt made a video. He couldn’t think of a soundtrack to put to it, but begged for suggestions. This is what happens when you put requests like that out on the net.
EDITED TO ADD: since the new WordPress update breaks Podpress, here’s the audio file. I’ll come back and properly podcast this once it’s fixed.
There’s a very strange thing that happens if you spend too much time listening to Avant-Garde experimental noise music, like rolling down your window to hear the highway construction, staring at your tv tuned to a blank channel, and appreciating Björk in a whole new way.
And then, if you’re me, you start thinking you can do it, too. Because you can.
EDITED TO ADD: because El Plan De Aguavodka ate my fucking brain, that’s why.
There has been a suspicious spike in traffic here lately, so I devised a test. If you really want to be here, you’ll not only stay subscribed, but you’ll go over to iTunes and leave a review detailing the philosophical implications of forcing people to listen to two of the most obnoxious songs ever created at the same time. Bonus points will be awarded if you can include some obfuscatory theory-speak about how the sun will come out in a small world after all, tomorrow.
This actually wasn’t my idea. The original idea came from Midori. The the not-safe-for-work fetish diva, not the liquor.
Somewhere back in the hazy mists of time, Sue put out a question on her podcast, Uncomfortable Questions. Sue wanted to know “What is the universe?” I immediately came up with a response, and then just as immediately sat on it for months, because school and lots of other things just got in the way. I never forgot about it, though, and I finally got around to producing my answer for the world at large.
My answer? The universe is what it is, but we can only know what we perceive it to be. The universe can ultimately be reduced down to nerve impulses because that is the totality of our experience. That makes me a materialist, and I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings.
Go listen to Sue’s podcast. It’s deep thoughts and big ideas considered by everyday people, and it’s good stuff.
Holy crap, it’s a podcast!
Tonight, I have a sort of arty audio collage called The Birthright. As also explained in the actual real voiceover, I have some new and slightly dodgy technology to play with, and I want to apologize for breathing into the mic like I did. I hate that.
The music is Babba Gee by Stargarden, from Mangatunes.com. I actually don’t like this song all that much, but it works well for this piece, and really, how much control do I actually have in this process?
The original audio files come from the Psychedelic Salon podcast #120, Notes To Myself. Thank you, Lorenzo, you are a podcasting hero of mine. I hope you get a chance to listen to it.
With a little luck, I’ll have a few more McKenna remixes for you guys some time in the future.
Comments, criticisms, rants and raves can be made in the blog, or you can email me at podcast at braindouche.net. Enjoy!
Is it something psychological? Or is it diabetes? I may be able to help you find out just what’s wrong, and take you to your happy place.
Note: Somehow, I uploaded an 11 minute silent file to the server. Should be fixed now, but if you somehow got the bum file, you can redownload now.
I’m really into this whole ambient/experimental thing right now. It’s expressive and different, and it takes me about 30 seconds to produce something that sounds like music, so it massages my instant-gratification buttons like you wouldn’t believe.
This little bit sounds to me like a bunch of ghosts who are really upset at being trapped in a heavy, metal ventilation system. Which is much more pleasant to listen to than you’d think.
Since, like, forever, the video describing my brain on drugs has been broken. I’ve finally found a new version of the vid, Gwen Verdon and her girls dancing to Mexican Breakfast. All is right with the world.
However, I found a few more Gwen Verdon vids, and I thought I’d share my guilty little pleasure with you. A little piece of your soul may die if you watch this, but them’s the wages of youtube, folks.
Let’s see now…
Orchestra: I think it sounds like strings and flutes and perhaps just the lightest little percussion section with cymbals in the back.
Space: In my universe, Ambient music is awesome, but Space music has a definite direction to follow. This piece goes somewhere.
Instant: You wouldn’t believe how quickly this whole piece came together.
So, yeah. Just when I’d given up on completing RPM, here’s another installment. That makes 17:28. That means I’m halfway there! And I’ve got two days left! I don’t think I’ll be able to finish, but it’s been fun trying.
This piece is an artifact from the future. Not long after the dust of the destruction from the Neo-Jihadists had settled, North America collapsed into civil war. The New Republic and the CRI (Coalition of Rugged Individualists) battled for control of territory and any remaining infrastructure, both claiming to be the underdog, and both better-funded and more powerful than either was willing to admit.
The Jihad destroyed nearly everything. The internet is gone, telephone communication is only possible within small communities if it’s available at all, and television simply requires too much valuable electricity to allow a set to be kept on very long, let alone produced. The only reliable systems of communication are radio broadcast and print, and even then, they’re prohibitively expensive — and therefore controlled by the factions. Mostly.
A third faction exists, officially classified as “terrorists” by both sides. They’re a loose network of rebels, made up mostly of punks, hackers, journalists, and a few other malcontents who refused to swear allegiance to either side during the Jihad. While they’re referred to as Anarchs by both the New Republic and the CRI (and occasionally as The Fourth Estate, if you’re sure nobody is listening) , they’ve never actually claimed a name, preferring to mark their work with the phrase “We are Anonymous. I am Legion.” Mostly, they work to interfere with both factions, griefing both sides with everything from transmitter sabotage to bizarre Dadaist performances impersonating typical faction propaganda displays. As time went, their actions and techniques became highly sophisticated.
Being that radio transmission is the only form of communication left that’s faster than gossip, “number stations” have experienced a renaissance during the Second Civil War, mostly because, historically, their codes were notoriously hard to break. This is an example of an intercepted short-wave transmission typical of that time. It’s impossible to say where it came from, or from who, without deciphering the code.
This story concept, “universe”, entities mentioned, and general story idea is hereby released into the public domain. However, if you decided to use any or all of the text of this post in a creative work, please contact me and let me know. I just want to see where it goes, if it goes anywhere. The audio portion of this post is not a part of the public domain, and rights are reserved on portions of the audio that are inextractable from the rest of the piece. Please contact me for more details.
Just a little shorty this time. This is what happens when you take pink noise (artificial wind), overdrive the shit out of it through a phaser set to 11, run it through an analog centerpass filter, then stick it through a “gong model” (whatever the hell that is) to fatten it up and give it that harmonic, shimmery sound. I actually ended up with about 5 minutes of this, but I figured 30 seconds was more than enough.
And we’re off! As the first track in my RPM offerings, I present “Intergalactic Windchimes”. This bit is 5:19 long, or approximately 15% of my goal of 35 fresh minutes of audio.
Intergalactic Windchimes is built from a highly processed 5 second sample of brown noise. (Noise comes in different colors. White noise has an even spread across frequencies, while other colors of noise have different properties and therefore their own distinctive sounds. On it’s own, brown noise sounds like a wave constantly in the middle of crashing.) In the process of stretching out and processing the sample, many harmonics have been highlighted, and the result is an extended piece that sounds like an accidental radio broadcast from an alien civilization who considers wind chime music to be high art.
Lesson learned: When heavily processing a piece of audio (in Audacity, at any rate), it’s very difficult to not end up with a very sci-fi result. The process itself, as I do it, leaves enormous artifacts embedded in the sound that are tough to remove and almost impossible to prevent. The digital artifacts have an inescapable electronic, artificial and ordered sound, something that I think most people associate with “the future”.
Next goal? Something that sounds different from this.
Braindouche 003: RPM track 1 -- Intergalactic Windchimes [5:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadLet’s see… school just started, I work full time, I manage all these god damn websites, I have a wife that needs my attention now and again, and my car is desperately in need of an oil change.
Dunno about you, but it sounds like the perfect time to start a killer insane project!
I signed up the other day with the RPM Challenge. In really short terms, it’s the NaNoWriMo for recording musicians. During the month of February (now with 24 extra hours!), you need to come up with, record, and master a CD with ten songs or 35 minutes of sound. Just like Nano, it doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be done. Since I haven’t written an actual song in years, I figured I could take this opportunity to really dig into sound art type stuff, play with ambient textures, and generally assemble a collection of noise that will be little more than proofs of concept. It’s a challenge to plug in my digital audio toys and see if I can come up with 35 minutes of not nothing in an absurd time frame.
I don’t know what I’ll come up with during the month of February. What I do know is that I’ll be updating this site with whatever I do come up with, as frequently as I can. I probably won’t do a whole lot of talking, if any, because I do know that talking into a microphone is still an inefficient practice for me. For my own sanity, I’ve also made a rule that, unless I need something specific or I find something that inspires me, all my samples will come from The Freesound Project. Whether or not I can stick to it is yet to be seen. My goal, from beginning to end, is to use public domain work in my work, and then release everything as CC-attribution. The only reason I’m not releasing the new work as public domain myself is because I’m vain, and while the goal is to set this stuff free, it’s the least I can do to get reports on derivative works, if any.So, that’s the news. Wish me luck. Better yet, go sign up for RPM ‘08 and suffer with me.
I’ve never quite figured out whether or not you’re supposed to wish people a happy Martin Luther King Day or not, because it’s never seemed like a day we should celebrate, you know? I mean, Dr. King was a guy who should definitely be celebrated, but a party atmosphere just isn’t right. A lot of people turn it into a day of volunteering, and I’m not sure if that’s right either, but it’s a whole lot closer.
Regardless, I am pretty sure that contemplation should be a part of this day, too, so today I’m contemplating Dr. King’s words. I found a copy of his “I Have A Dream” speech somewhere online a few months ago, and listened to the whole thing. It’s truly astonishing, and it occurred to me that I’d never heard the whole thing before, and probably neither had a lot of people. So, here’s the speech, in it’s entirety, and all I ask is that you stop what you’re doing and really pay attention to what he’s saying. Consider his message of integration and service, think about the people who have criticized this message, and ask yourself if you think his dream has been realized yet.
I would like to express my continual gratitude to Archive.org for this audio, and for existing in general. If you want the source file without me blathering on in the beginning, it can be found here.
Have a good Martin Luther King Day, everyone.
Open your mind, change your needle, tune in and get that fresh clean feeling.
*points*
See that? In the header? That is my brain.
See this?
This is my brain, on drugs.
Any questions?
I’ve updated my OPML file, now with 100 feeds! If you want to download it, find the link under “Pages”, and knock yourself out.
This is a special preview episode, thrashed together specifically for submission to the KarMel Scholarship. Take confessional podcasting, mix it with NPR-style interview documentary con tuneage, add one giant coming out story, and season liberally with one butt-kicking deadline. Serve fresh.
links:
The KarMel Scholarship
Jeff Wahl
John Williams
Seismic Anomaly
Pl@stic Soul
El Ten Eleven
Update: I won! This podcast, plus a poem I submitted, were picked by Karen and Melody for the Special Judges’ Award for 2007. This is a little bit extra cool, because I’m the first person they’ve ever selected to honor for both writing and artistic merit. It’s awesome to be recognized. (Now email me and ask me what this works out to in dollars per hour, because ultimately it’s HIGH-larious. But also awesome.)
Today is a big day. I’ve been comment spammed for the first time!