Metamorfrozen - "Antarctica"

Not too long ago, one of the professors in my department went on a 2-week expedition to Antarctica (where apparently, the weather is better than here in Wisconsin). Upon his return, he was telling me of his adventures on the icy waters, the near-constant darkness, the penguins and polar bears, and all the other things one does while exploring a massive continent made of ice. But out of all his tales, this comment was by far the most interesting: "I didn't want to come back." Now, this statement was probably made in the context of a great vacation, rather than a true desire to never return to civilization. But still, it speaks a lot to the appeal of an icy, barren landscape.

Listening to Antarctica, I can't truly get a sense of that appeal, but that doesn't mean that ambient music can't try to convey that feeling. Simply put, this is music about Antarctica, and it wants you to know how every icy ocean swell, endless sheath of ice, and dark, freezing cavern sounds. Everything is slow, epic, and isolating, and although I've never physically seen these places, I can get quite a mental picture. Obviously, "Aurora Australis" will never live up to the actual Aurora Australis, but music has to catch its inspiration from somewhere, otherwise, what would be the point?

"Survivalism"

The official video for "Survivalism" (I like how the brooding, surveillance-like footage never really explains itself):

Unabomber was right

As a follow-up to a post earlier this week about the seemingly inevitable "singularity" of technology, here's a post via Kevin Kelly explaining how, after all these years, the Unabomber was right:

Ted Kaczynski, the convicted bomber who blew up dozens of technophilic professionals, was right about one thing: technology has its own agenda. The technium is not, as most people think, a series of individual artifacts and gadgets for sale. Rather, Kaczynski, speaking as the Unabomber, argued that technology is a dynamic holistic system. It is not mere hardware; rather it is more akin to an organism. It is not inert, nor passive; rather the technium seeks and grabs resources for its own expansion. It is not merely the sum of human action, but in fact it transcends human actions and desires.

Once again, although the arguments on "technical necessity" are interesting, I don't believe that technology is accelerating out of control and pursuing its own means. Why? Because there's a pretty big flip-side to the intelligent rhetoric of the singularity and the Unabomber: insanity.

Marquette done

Marquette made a nice run this year, and will finish in the top echelon of the toughest conference in the country. But with their remaining schedule, lack of depth and size, and now Dominic James' broken left foot, there's just not going to be enough left in the tank. They'll still be a dangerous team, one that no team will want to face come the Big East and NCAA tournaments. But to survive through long stretches of must-win games at this time of year, you need that size and durability. Over the years in March Madness, there have not been many exceptions to that rule.

Google Maps: Ground Zero

Google Maps: Ground Zero is the most apocalyptic app ever. It also proves that nukes have nothing on asteroids.

Be A Nose

McSweeney's (and clusterflock) present: Be A Nose!

Asymmetrical TV

Soccer and Indians

Lately--and for the first time in my life--my dreams have made sense figuratively, metaphorically, and literally. Until last night, when I dreamed that I was a soccer goalie, and the opposing team was a bunch of wild Native American Indians riding horses and throwing spears into the goal.

"S. Darko"

I really enjoyed Donnie, but I don't think a sequel is a good idea. You can't replicate or improve the strangeness of that movie. S. seems like it will attempt to answer all the lingering questions--with a mainstream audience in mind--that Donnie posed, and will undoubtedly detract from the mysterious value of the original.

Neuroscience of nostalgia

Nice article--complete with article and abstract links--that discusses the neuroscience of nostalgia:

It’s not surprising to say nostalgia is all about memories. These recollections of our past are usually important events, people we care about, and places we’ve spent time at. What is perhaps a little surprising is that nostalgia is almost always associated with positive emotions – even when the trigger for recalling a nostalgic memory is something negative. In the study I’ve linked to the negative memory people reported was usually a bad situation that was eventually overcome – a bad memory tempered with a good outcome and association.

Nostalgia for "college days" was always (and still is) very strong for me, but it's interesting how you have to continually filter out specific events to make room for the new ones you experience. These new experiences force you to reflect back and, in a way, make nostalgic-rated assessments leading up to any given moment in your life.

Twitter = narcissism?

According to this article, I, being a Twitter user, am an insecure and self-centered narcissist:

"We are the most narcissistic age ever,” agrees Dr. David Lewis, a cognitive neuropsychologist and director of research based at the University of Sussex. “Using Twitter suggests a level of insecurity whereby, unless people recognize you, you cease to exist. It may stave off insecurity in the short term, but it won’t cure it.”

I don't understand why they are just picking on Twitter. If you're going to make these claims and observations, then you have to apply the same logic to Facebook, for it is merely a larger, visual-based version of Twitter. Both of these services are simply part of the social networking phenomenon, only Twitter utilizes a distinct and separate set of advantages and limitations to carve its niche. And of course these services promote narcissism and self-recognition; this revolutionary wave of communication is based on one thing: you.

Hampton gallery

The Phish Hampton Poster Gallery is a small collection of art that has been surfacing in anticipation of the upcoming reunion shows:


No word on Pollock prints, however...

The Phantom Band - "Checkmate Savage"

When listening to Checkmate Savage, I'm reminded of a plain, uncooked, untrimmed piece of chicken breast: it's tasteless, and has a bunch of excessive stuff that isn't good for you. Maybe if you could trim off some of the fatty rib meat and add a little marinade, you might have yourself a decent piece of meat. But this is an album, not a piece of meat, and so no matter how masterful your culinary skills are, there's nothing you can do to improve it (I realize this is a very stupid metaphor, but sometimes you just have to call them as you see them).

Checkmate starts off well enough with "The Howling"--a tune that really gets you bouncing with a ride of bassy keys, snares, and cymbals--but proceeds to peak and valley for the duration of the record. The peaks--"Folk Song Oblivion," "Halfhound," and "Throwing Stones"-- aren't so bad, because they are actually fairly decent rock songs drenched in Scottish drawl. But the valleys just bring it all down with needless clutter in between, to the point where I get the impression that the album was designed around filler. I'd be a little more positive about Checkmate if it were comprised of just the aforementioned songs, but even they fall short of satisfying because they quickly become long and bland.

Social media stand-off

I find it interesting that my close circle of friends and family are always encouraging me to join Facebook, while I'm always encouraging them to join Twitter. Neither budge. You would think that this inner circle would want to be involved with each other's online social networks, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Dr. Seuss brevity

In 1955, Dr. Seuss bet his publisher that he could write a book using only 50 words. He won the bet in 1960:

a am and anywhere are be boat box car could dark do eat eggs fox goat good green ham here house I if in let like may me mouse not on or rain Sam say see so thank that the them there they train tree try will with would you

Poetic brevity=instant classic and childhood favorite. (via kottke)

"The Wire" - Season 1

I really liked the orange couch that sat in the middle of The Pit. Such a small piece of scenery, yet it centralized the entire world of Avon Barksdale's drug crew and their daily business. The couch also connected well to Detective Freamon's penchant for crafting finely detailed doll-house furniture. His tiny handiwork was a microcosm of the intricate infiltration, and subsequent wire-tapping of Barksdale's underworld. Subtle symbolism in a superb first season.

Abbey Road

A day in the life of Abbey Road...5 years ago, while touring Europe, I was "that guy":

DSO tickets

I've always been curious about seeing Dark Star Orchestra in concert, so when Radio Milwaukee announced that they were giving away 2 tickets to the upcoming Riverside show, I attempted to be "caller #4" on my drive home from work. I ended up sitting through 15 minutes of busy signals, and ultimately, didn't win. Oddly enough, I now feel compelled to buy tickets, as if I need to redeem myself for "losing" them through the promotion.

Patachromo

"Patachromo™": a luminous installation from Superbien based on the concepts of chromotherapy (which uses color and light to balance the body's physical, mental, and spiritual energy):

City living hurts our brains

Recent research has shown that living in a city hurts our brains by impairing our cognitive abilities and weakening our attention spans:

A city is so overstuffed with stimuli that we need to constantly redirect our attention so that we aren't distracted by irrelevant things, like a flashing neon sign or the cellphone conversation of a nearby passenger on the bus. This sort of controlled perception -- we are telling the mind what to pay attention to -- takes energy and effort. The mind is like a powerful supercomputer, but the act of paying attention consumes much of its processing power.

Despite what this research says, I have to disagree; I find that living in a city keeps my mind active and makes me more creative. If I were walking through a quiet forest, my physiological condition might be calmer, but my head wouldn't be making connections and assessments about urban and cultural interaction. And after all, the city, not the forest, is where I live, so why would I not want my mind to be active there?

Education space as geography

Educational space as geography is an interesting concept, especially in terms of online learning environments. Instructors in these environments, according to Lisa Meloncon, are beginning to apply the artifacts and visual cues of "electronic landscapes" to their teaching. Such a geographical metaphor is key for students attempting to understand the constantly shifting landscapes of technical communication fields:

In an online setting, [students] model not only productive online behaviors, but they also can relate those behaviors to more traditional workplace communicative spaces through metadiscussion. In other words, by overtly discussing their communicative strategies with their students, the students have the metacognitive advantage of both seeing the strategy in practice and learning about the strategy as a strategy.

Good conspiracies

Everyone loves a good conspiracy, and here's 30 of the greatest in history. Given past government frauds and cover-ups (Watergate, Enron, WMDs, etc.), it's interesting to consider the validity of some of these. Besides, what's the fun if you can't believe them?

Blackout Beach - "Skin of Evil"

The first time I listened to Frog Eyes, I was a bit scared. Carey Mercer's vocals were just so off the wall, so maniacal, that any semblance to sanity was quickly lost in a flurry of dense, guttural lyrics. Fortunately, there was a fairly good band surrounding Mercer, and their Strawberry Alarm Clock-esque sound buffered and molded Mercer into the fold of some pretty interesting music. But with Mercer solo, all of that is stripped away, and those vocals I'd love to hear tell campfire stories are the sole center of attention. And it's some truly terrifying shit.

Skin of Evil is not so much music as it is musical poetry. It delves into the imagery-laden tale of Donna (the cold-hard broad holding the wheat to the right) and the woeful men with "soft minds" that pursue her love. There's no arc to this story--in fact, I think Donna might be dead--and the album simply proceeds with Mercer wrapping text (yes, text) around sullen layers of broken guitar and whispering uber-melodic verses. He's the anti-Thoreau if there ever was one, and his Walden Pond is not so pleasant.

And I think there was men before who were too scrambled by Donna's awesome, awesome power.
But did any of them ever fly?
And by fly I mean moving in and out of the crescents and into the indentations and the golden crescents of the sky?
The pink flowers are dying but everything everywhere is occasionally getting into the dying.

Tilt-shift photography video

Tilt-shift photography video by Keith Loutit:



(via snarkmarket)

Valentine's Day 2008!

I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day afternoon than to be writing about ferumoxytol as an intravenous iron replacement therapy in hemodialysis patients while enjoying Lindor Truffles with smooth chocolate fillings.

Porcelain wallpaper

Some examples of porcelain wallpaper by Daniel Pirsc:

"The Wire" opener

I'm about half-way through the first season of "The Wire," and as I did with "The Sopranos," I'm realizing how important a great, opening theme song is to the mood and framework of a series. If you're really into the show--and at this point, I am--it almost becomes a Pavlovian cue to shift into focused-viewing mode. "The Wire" is a bit different from "The Sopranos" in that you have an opening scene before the bluesy "Way Down in a Hole" kicks in, but that framing effect still somehow hangs there waiting.

CityCenter

While in Las Vegas last month, I noticed how the construction of the modern (and massive) CityCenter starkly contrasted with the classic look and feel of the strip and its casinos. It seemed out of place, in a way, and didn't display any of the "individualism" that Vegas architecture is so famous for. In any case, CityCenter is about to become even more of an eye-sore now that its capstone building--the Harmon Hotel--is being cut from 49 stories to 28 due to "15 floors of wrongly installed rebar."

It’s still unclear how Harmon will be capped, and what reengineering will be required for such infrastructure elements as elevators and vents. If the Harmon’s exterior isn’t significantly redesigned, it risks looking unmistakably out of proportion. Think 28 oz. of tomatoes squished into a 16 oz. can.

This must be incredibly embarassing for the architect, given the puny stature the Harmon now has in the sketches.

Stop texting

While I was stopping by campus on today, I saw a stop sign on Prospect and Linnwood that had the word "Texting" written under "STOP." Whoever this vandal was, he or she is certainly not dealing well with modern, technological means of communication.

Muppet history

If you've ever been curious about the history of the Muppet characters, this article has everthing you've ever wanted to know. It's a fairly comprehensive list, with lots of interesting tidbits. Growing up, I always liked the Count, and his obessive-compulsive counting:

Count von Count made his first appearance in 1972 and was made out of an Anything Muppet pattern -- a blank Muppet head that could have features added to it to make various characters. He used to be more sinister -- he was able to hypnotize and stun people and he laughed in typical scary-villain-type fashion after completing a count of something and thunder and lightning would occur.

Jim Henson later took away his sinister looks and ability to hypnotize, fearing it would scare children.

Scintillating stop-motion

"Milk"

Sean Penn, as always, was fabulous, and I loved the way the vintage footage of 1970s San Francisco was integrated into the film. My only gripe was the opening scene--where Milk is recording his life story onto a tape recorder in case he is assassinated. It created some great anticipated suspense, but was ruined two minutes later when it was revealed that he would eventually be killed. Going in, I didn't know much about the Harvey Milk story, and I think I would have enjoyed the film more had I not been aware of his demise until it occured on screen.

Citation networking

A visual representation of citation networking in scientific journals. It's very interesting, but I'm not sure how valuable this information is. I'm also surprised that "Medical Imaging" and "Neuroscience" don't seem to connect to "Computer Science" and "Psychiatry," respectively. (via snarkmarket)

Radiohead at Grammys

I was surprised the rest of Radiohead did not perform with Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood at the Grammys tonight. However, the USC tubas and trombones were a fairly stellar replacement for those bass lines during "15 Step."

Andrew Bird - "Noble Beast"

There's something about the fading snaps and clicks of "Masterswarm"--the second track off Andrew Bird's Noble Beast--that pokes at an experience of quiet inner solitude. Strange, given the title of the track. Maybe you'd expect a song of overwhelming swarms of melodies, or one of complex, intricate structure. You'd be right to expect that, because "Masterswarm" is all those things. But, you don't feel that way while listening. You feel alone, relaxed, and underwhelmed, as if this mini-symphony were written just for you and the glass of scotch you might be kicking back with. It's music that is so wonderfully and carefully constructed that it always feels right and perfect. Such is the effect of the unique musicianship of Bird: complex contradiction breeds simple familiarity.

Like most Andrew Bird albums, Beast is a dainty and crisp piece of pop-rock. There's never a note out of place, and the tight compositions of whistles, violins, vocals, and acoustic guitar are a testament to precisely crafted music. If these songs were paintings in a gallery, you'd spend a good deal of time on each one, passing over each of its sophisticated layers with that warm buzz of appreciation.

Where We Do What We Do

Where We Do What We Do is an online gallery of the spaces within which we work. I think it's interesting that rarely does anyone include themselves in the photos. You would think that you would be a major part of that space, but this site seems to implicitly encourage you to strip yourself away. Here's my submission.

"Mykonos"

Fleet Foxes' new video, "Mykonos"...



...and the painstaking way they made it:

Story from North America

An animated tale of ethics and morality by Kristen Lepore:



(via clusterflock)

Old-school MU

Dmitry Maximov's creatures

You can find more of whatever this is here:

Original "Alien 3" sketches

Lebbeus Woods reveals some of the sketches he originally proposed for the setting of Alien 3:

The story of the Ward movie was radically different, though it deployed the same basic characters, in that the setting was a religious colony that had escaped the earth and inhabited an abandoned commercial facility deep in space. They had adopted a Medieval way of life, without electricity or modern technology. The Ripley-Alien drama was to be played out inside this crumbling, artificial world. Under Ward’s direction, this would have become something highly original, a movie in which the architecture would have had a central part.

3 was my least favorite of the quadrilogy, but I wonder if this version, had it come to fruition, would have changed that. The juxtaposition between medieval, modern, and other-worldly would have been an interesting subtext.

Kindle research

I did a little research on the Amazon Kindle today, and am having the same feelings of curiosity as I did when I first seriously considered buying an iPod over 5 years ago. However, I don't think I'm going to bite this time.

Although Kindle is a very sleek, versatile device, it doesn't--at this point in time--offer what the iPod did in terms of personal entertainment revolution. If I purchase a great album off iTunes, I listen to it many, many times. It's integrated into a mini-mass database of other music, and I can summon it whenever the mood strikes me. In contrast, I would probably only read an e-book once. It's nice that I can store many e-books in one confined place, but what's the use if it's only for storage of digital files that I won't ever engage with again? In that respect, Kindle seems like it costs the same amount of physical effort as carrying around a paperback. That, and the selection of books I would personally want to read just isn't there yet.

I would be much more interested in Kindle if its wireless capabilities extended to my daily web surfing. That would greatly enhance blog reading, and other forms of online text that are updated at sporadic times throughout the day. I suppose this is dependent on free, public Wi-Fi, but I think eventually we'll get there. Until then, I'll stick with my books.

David after dentist

Thom Yorke - "The Eraser Rmxs"

The Eraser Rmxs delivers what it promises: remixes of Thom Yorke's 2006 solo release, The Eraser. Obvious? Of course. But what else can you really talk about when it comes to remixed albums? They always seem to evade any sort of critical appraisal because they are always a little less good than the original. Never better. Or at least have never been in my personal experience. But, what is worth mentioning about Rmxs is the shift in context from original to remix.

The Eraser, as a concept, was brighter than we would have normally expected from Thom Yorke. The undertones of paranoia and fear he and Radiohead constantly gravitated towards were still there, but they were glossed over by a surrendering attitude that seemed to claim that these feelings we live with are inevitable. Rmxs, on the other hand, plunge any notion of pleasantry back into that black swirl (see cover art) we always knew was there. This is the underbelly of Eraser, and it digs in pretty deep.

Musically, the guest list on Rmxs is fairly conducive to the themes hinted at above. Appearances by Burial--a dude whose depressive dub-styles (Untrue - 2007) are a mood case-in-point--and Surgeon in the first two tracks crank the album way below any silver linings, and the Modeselektor Remix of "Skip Divided" deconstructs any notion that things will be alright. In the end, Thom Yorke wasn't really skipping along a sunny path; rather, he was waiting around a dark corner or lurking in some dank basement.

Biomedical Art II

Phish at the 'roo

It's finally official--Phish to headline Bonnaroo (via jambands):

"Their presence at Bonnaroo holds a great deal of significance -- besides the fact that each of its members has shown the event great support, performing at the festival in various incarnations over the years, Phish’s own festivals were notably one of the major inspirations for Bonnaroo’s creation and operational strategies,” the festival’s organizers said in a statement. “Many of the organizers of those events (large scale, multi-day camping festivals with Phish as the solo performer) were brought on to help birth Bonnaroo in 2002, and continue to play a major role in the festival to this day."

In addition to their headlining slot, Phish will reportedly play a late-night show. I'm curious about how that will work logistically. I always thought--to be effective--the late-night sets would take place in tucked away corners of Bonnaroo. Obviously, a Phish late-night set will have to take place on the big stage, unless they plan on surprising people in the campgrounds with short, impromptu, blitzkrieg sets.

"New Liberal Arts"

Snarkmarket is making a book on the new liberal arts. A very cool idea that I think could gain a lot of momentum. They want your input; make your suggestions here.

No Facebook for me

I was recently asked why I'm not on Facebook. I suppose the first answer to that question is easy: I enjoy editing my blog, which provides a means of creative writing, sparse dialogue, and sharing ideas, media, and pictures. In a way it's not much different from Facebook, but there are only so many things you can do with the hours you have--in terms of being online--and I find blogging a much more valuable, versatile, and fulfilling exercise.

Second, I find the whole social dynamic of Facebook a little weird. There's something about "accepting" and "rejecting" people in that sort of human-less environment that counters what I find valuable in maintaining online communication. It's one thing to occupy a space, and subsequently, to regulate who is allowed in that space. But the rules (or lack of) for that regulation are so different from how we act face-to-face, that it really begins to change our perception of a "friend." Maybe that can start to trickle down into our physical lives.

I think blogging eliminates some of the social awkwardness that, for me, Facebook presents. When I blog, it's more of an online stream of thought that I've decided to start, and participation is based on nothing more than your decision and personal interest. You don't need my permission, and I don't even need to know you exist.