The known universe in 6.5 minutes. Amazing stuff. Thanks to Scott for turning me on to this.
Archive for 2009
The Known Universe
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009Favorite Christmas Tunes
Monday, December 21st, 2009From Duke Ellington’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. This swings and always puts me in a festive mood.
This non-traditional Christmas tune usually finds its way to my holiday playlist. I love the way he sounded back then.
Another favorite. I think I stole this disc from my Mom about 10 years ago. Where would jazz today be without Wynton Marsalis? The playing is superb. Thanks Mom.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
This has always been a favorite. I especially like this version because of Garland’s voice and slightly different lyrics.
Classic. I can’t imagine anyone else sing this except for Nat King Cole.
It Lives!
Thursday, December 10th, 2009My server died a week or so ago. Its been in trouble for a while but I didn’t do anything to fix it. After swapping a bunch of parts, I was able to move the blog to another machine. Everything seems to be running smoothly.
Hurray!
Links
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009“Each rifflet must also be less than 60 seconds long. Members of the site can then browse through these “proto-songs,” and combine them with other rifflets they find or even just incorporate them into their own original music.”
“No one can deny that audiences are conservative, whether they be Parisians rioting at the première of the Rite of Spring in 1913 or punks lobbing bottles at the art-rock group Suicide when they went on tour with the Clash.”
“Classical music may not be subject to the “here today, gone tomorrow” fashions in clothing or pop; its timelines are decades-long, rather than weekly or yearly but it is just as prone to cultural shifts and trends.”
“A masterpiece doesn’t push you around. It lets you make up your own mind about what it means—and change it as often as you like.”
“Lush, organic, effortlessly powerful, it resolves the major themes of the symphony with phenomenal grace and imagination. Like all great art, it imparts to the audience a profound sense of empathy and belief, as well as a tremendous desire to urinate.”
Olive Gray
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
A little over a week ago, our second daughter Olive was born. Jenna called me at work and said it was time to go to the hospital. I left right away and drove home thinking about whether to go the ER or up to Labor and Delivery. Most of all I tried to remain calm.
When I got home, I saw Lucy being carried across the street by one of our neighbors. I gave her a kiss and went in the house. It was quiet until I got to the kitchen. I heard Jenna in the bathroom throwing up. I asked what was wrong. “I’m having a baby!” she said. I knew she was in labor. What I didn’t know was that in a matter of minutes I would be delivering our new baby right there on the bathroom floor.
I’ll spare the graphic details but here it is in a nutshell. The top of the baby’s head began to show and I called 911. I told the guy on the other end what was happening and he said “I’ll talk you through it.” A couple big pushes and a few clean towels later, there she was. Jenna and I were in a bit of a shock.
I wrapped her in towels. I tapped on her feet to get her to cry. I swept her mouth with my pinky finger to clear her airway. She tried to look around. We talked to her. This went on for 5 minutes which seemed like an absolute eternity. Finally the emergency folks arrived to take them to the hospital. I followed.
Mom and baby are home and doing well. Olive was 9 lbs. 2oz.
It was the best Monday ever.
Update: I have a copy of the 911 call. All I can say is… WOW. Even though I was there, it is still pretty intense listening. Almost like being there all over again. The folks at the Sheriff’s department, the Milwaukee Fire Department, and paramedics were very nice. I’m so glad they were there to help.
Links
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009“Unlike MySpace songs, SoundCloud’s can be embedded anywhere, have no file-size limit, let fans comment on specific parts of a recording, and allow bands to share songs publicly or only with certain contacts — the sort of flexibility we’ve become accustomed to on sharing and social sites like Flickr and Facebook.”
“BBC Magazine invited 13-year-old Scott Campbell, to wear a vintage Sony Walkman for a day. He took the challenge seriously, and wrote up his impressions of the Walkman versus the modern equivalent.”
“Just like with full album pricing, you’ll be able to charge whatever you want for individual song downloads (and each track can be priced differently!)”
“Pandora recently revamped its music submission process and will only accept material that’s already available for sale on Amazon.com as a CD, not mp3.”
“The idea that people just want stuff for free? Debunked. Give people a reason to buy in the form of real value they can’t get elsewhere, and they absolutely will.”