Less Angry More Bird

Image from here. Proof positive that staring into the eye of a Cockatoo is
not dissimilar to staring into the cold unwavering insanity of the abyss.

What madness is this!? Two posts in almost as many days?! Two mixes at that!?? Indeed. That is what it is.

However, this mix is a lazy one, crafted by chance over craft. These songs were selected by the criteria that every song has to have the word 'Bird' in the title. I did whittle it down a bit, so I wasn't completely hands-off. Originally I chose 'Bird' as an overall keyword and this produced roughly 3 and 1/2 hours of music (one of the songs was a half-hour field recording of birds). Searching by song title alone reduced it by 45 minutes so I then played it through and made some cuts. The current mix is around 1 hour.

Unified by Bird [112.2MB 256 kbps .mp3 file via Mediafire].

Tracklist (links to albums in titles or notes)
Sandra LeBrun Holmes — Morning Star And Devil Bird (This is from NASA's Voyager Golden Record)
fLako — Bird
Acanthus — Flightless Bird
Diamanda Galás — Birds of Death
The Trashmen — Bird '65 (Taken from Lux Interior's legendary radio show 'The Purple Knif Show')
White Noise — Firebird
Guitar Vader — Bird Ship
Hideaki Sakurai — Birds And Beasts (From the Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance Soundtrack which appears to be out of print.)
Lizzy Mercier Descloux — Birdy Num-Num
Rip Rig and Panic — Howl! Caged Bird
The Robocop Kraus — A Man's Not A Bird
The Residents — Birds in the Trees
John S. Hall & Kramer — The Birds
Hedningarna — Täppmarschen (Sorrow Is A Lonely Bird)
Martin Denny — Yellow Bird (winner, most expensive collectable album)
Coon Creek Girls — Little Birdie
The Dynamic Batmen — Robin The Bird
Cornelius — Bird Watching at Inner Forest
Múm — The Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records

I kept the tracks in the same order iTunes sorted them and I'm not sure what it's reasoning was as there does seem to be a kind of shape developing over the mix with certain types of songs clustering together.

[BONUS] When originally selecting via 'Bird' appearing in song/album/composer the mix opened with this song from the We Love Katamari (also known as Katamari Tribute) soundtrack. It started the mix beautifully, but I let it go due to the word 'Bird' not appearing song title.

Yū Miyake (remixed by Beautiful Hummingbird)— Cherry Blossom Color Season (fanfare mix) [12.1MB .mp3 file] [Buy]

EDIT: Changed link to directly link to the mix.

Recent Mix: 'Conceived as a Solid Dome'

2012 took an entire year to complete. Sometimes you just have to make something for the simple fact that making it frees you from having to make it any more.

This is a mix I have been playing with for a while, having trouble finding a consistent thematic approach and I don't think that I would have finished it unless I forced myself to publish it.

It is loosely inspired by the presence of the 2012 Geminid meteor shower (which I missed seeing) and includes work by INFNTLP, Richard Brautigan, The Soundtrack from the movie 'Drive', Clara Mondshine, Plankton Wat, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, Young Marble Giants, Naked Spots Dance, Terrible Truths, Les Espions, Can, Philip Glass remixed by Dan Deacon, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Animal Crossing Soundtrack, Stan Brakhage and Laibach.

Download [116.7MB 256 kbps .mp3 file via Mediafire].

EDIT: links altered and re-posted due to 'I before E except after C' issues.

Last Metcard-device related post

Metcard device, 'Not in use' adhesive label, packing tape, second 'Not in use' adhesive label, grey Gaffa tape wrapped-around device.

Perhaps in the future old Metcard machines will form the core of layered tape and label juggernauts.

UPDATE: We instinctually shun the technologies of our descendants

Currently (as of 12:58:13 PM AEST, Monday 14th January 2013)...

... Apple computers auto-capitalise 'facebook'.

We instinctually shun the technologies of our ancestry

The previous technology is referenced. The ad-hoc nature of the printed label (self adhesive if memory serves) suggests that the lack of use may be temporary however this is certainly not the case. if there was any doubt, observe the caps. For the moment, the new technology nestles with the old.

  

Out of the city, the format changes. The font and caps remain. However, the old technology is no longer referenced and the label is adhered through wide-format sticky tape even though the label is itself adhesive.

Just in case you missed it: redundancy begets redundancy. The shamelessness of the brown packing tape reinforcing this point.

The display reads 'Closed'. Though in its very nature absence suggests a presence, in this case the technology lacks the format for suggesting it's finality. There will be no 'Open'. The display used to show the time and ticket-related data.

Paper is highly susceptible to relic-dom and pre-ephemera.

 

As previously discussed, here is the current state of the Tower of Metcards, finalised. It stands at approximately 23 centimetres.

 

[Bonus]

 

[Double-Bonus]

Vale, Metcard.

The instant when text goes from roman to bold

A.K.A 'My year of near-complete inactivity'

A.K.A 'Es tanzt das DNS'

'mediumtedium.net' website,
circa August-September, 2012.

So much time, sitting motionless at my desk, fingers poised mere millimetres from the keyboard twitching with unfulfilled potential. Illusionary Wolpertingers snap at calf muscles slowly atrophying from years of neglect. Internet websites enjoy an unintentional half-life bought upon them through inattention and behind-the-scenes hosting shifts.

But I digress.

You know when you run into an old friend and it's been years since you last saw them and they ask you what you've been doing with yourself for the last 11 or so years? On some occasions when this has happened I am so overwhelmed by the prospect of summarising the vast gulf of activity that my mind short circuits and initiates some kind of basic platitude such as 'The usual', 'This and that', 'Various things' and so forth. Under no circumstances would I use the phrase 'Same old, same old' (rumour has it that a pattern of slight discolouration on the belly of Ouroboros spells out these very words in Cuneiform text).

'Oroboros' enemy from 'Ni No Kuni' video game, PS3 2012

Under the surface of this near detail-free summary lies the primeval magma of significance, oozing and straining, perpetual and eternal. The universe yawns in it's massiveness and in the meantime, blogging.

As of December 2012 I have chosen the following excuses for not posting to this website:

• Inability to edit CSS to a satisfying level
• Discomfort with the term 'Blog'
• The pursuit of dreams, etc.
• Watching Youtube fail compilations (or just listening to their audio while working)
• Trying to get non-English computer voices to read English aloud
• Celestial bodies (2013 also looks to be a good year for these)
• Seeking out Pavlova flavoured Slurpees
• Miscellaneous

 And most recently:

• Wrestling with the new iTunes interface (while I understand the philosophy of a column-based interface, arrow-key mapping should be more intuitive).

So the dust has settled and I will now try to resume semi-regular programming. Attempting to create work where the work is generated by the work itself has failed and it seems a more direct approach is required.

Creating work where the work is generated by the work itself

Marker – Window – Blind

A winning formula.

Historical Arc

Point a)

From 'A Second Childhood' by G.K Chesterton.

Point b)
 

Eye Guy from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode 'I, Eye Guy'.

Corruption

'Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life' Harmen Steenwyck c. 1640 [Formatted for HD PS3 background]

A good blog takes commitment, dedication and work. Recently I purchased a PS3 (almost precisely one month before a price-drop) which has begun to vie for my affections. I changed the background image of my PS3s theme to Harmen Steenwijck's 1640 'Vanitas' painting (above) in order to help remind me of the fleeting nature of the moment and that I am potentially wasting my time on trifles before the inevitability of the void. To date this strategy has been remarkably ineffective.

Corrupted Data icon on custom PS3 Vanitas wallpaper background.

Corrupted Data text on custom PS3 Vanitas wallpaper background.

Recent mix: 8 types of Drugs

One of my favourite Talking Heads songs is 'Drugs' – also known as 'Electricity', 'Drugs (Electricity)' or 'Electricity (Drugs)'. I know a few versions of it and thought I would put some together into a 33-minute mix of variations of the song. The mix is not chronological and I tried to make it follow an arc of the song's character as well as attempting to consider the mix for listenability, so similar versions of the song do not appear subsequently.

Some trivia: The birds recorded for the album version (occurring around 11:40 on this mix) were recorded at the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia. The sanctuary is still open and is a 24 minute drive from my fathers house.

Download [76.4MB 320kbps .mp3 file via Mediafire]

Tracklist:
1. Drugs (Live bootleg) - Recorded at Boarding House, San Francisco, 1978
2. Electricity (Instrumental) - Bonus Rarities & Outtakes [Buy .mp3 download*]
3. Drugs (Electricity) - The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads. Recorded at Emerald City, Cherry Hill, 1980 [Buy]
4. Drugs - Fear of Music, 1979 [Buy]
5. Drugs (Live bootleg) - Recorded at Palalido, Milan, 1980 [Watch]
6. Electricity (Drugs) - The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads. Recorded at The Agora, Cleveland, 1978 [Buy]
7. Drugs (Alternate Take)- Bonus Rarities & Outtakes [Buy .mp3 download*]
8. Drugs  (Live bootleg) Recorded at Sun Palace, Tokyo 1981


*An American credit card is (still) required to purchase this album, much to my chagrin.

Additional:

This is a new Tumblr by me: #as# (pronounced hashashash).

Self-imposed criteria for posting to #as# are as follows:

• Screengrabs only
• Any cropping must be done with the screengrab software
• No post-production
• Posts can only be made via dropping files into a scripted folder
• Scripted folder will scale the images to 1200 px, date-stamp and automatically post new images (via email).

Go to a Web Site

The notebook dilemma partie deux

To choose a more expensive notebook with robust, high-qulity paper or to choose a less-expensive notebook with cheap, flimsy paper that has a 3D image of a dog wearing glasses on the cover.

The notebook dilemma

To draw on both sides of the page, favouring economy or to draw on one side of the page to prevent ink bleeding through, thus causing the journal or notebook to last half as long.

Commercial work

The client called me, asking for an illustration. I agreed and he gave me the following brief: "I want an image of a stylised new moon - an illustrated perfect circle - black, with a black drop-shadow with a blending mode of 'Multiply' on a black background. I obliged, and sent him an image of what appeared to be a consistently black square. "Nope" he said, "I can still make out the outline of the new moon and a touch of the drop shadow". "Aha!" I cried triumphantly. "I never made the moon or drop-shadow. What I am giving you is in fact, a consistently black square without a pixel of detail or variation". "Sure" he replied, unfazed by my jubilation and edge of superiority. "But I can still imagine it there, which is altering my ability to see a consistently black square which is ultimately what I'm after". "So essentially you want me to create an image of a stylised new moon - an illustrated perfect circle - black, with a black drop-shadow with a blending mode of 'Multiply' on a black background that also stops you from thinking of or seeing in your mind an an image of a stylised new moon - an illustrated perfect circle - black, with a black drop-shadow with a blending mode of 'Multiply' on a black background that is essentially a consistently black square".


"Exactly. And I want it to be 800 pixels square".