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"They Thought You'd Say This: Unlikely phrases from real phrase books" is a hoot. When I lived in Peru, I collected tourist phrase books from our local second-hand book kiosk—a place that had a two-for-one trade-in policy on books in English. Since I was teaching ESL to folks that wanted to get jobs in tourism and on the police squad dedicated to tourist-related matters, I figured that they'd need to know a lot of these common phrases. I was stunned at how many books had unlikely scenarios, but few of them were as outlandish as in this article.
Jon Iverson sends along this site devoted to the ideas of experimental film pioneer John Whitney, who wrote Digital Harmony, a book that has fascinated JI for years.
"You may notice some interesting links between the visuals and the audio, especially if you are a musician. For example, when the pattern forms a three-arm starfish, the chords you are hearing are diminished chords, which consist of minor thirds, an interval in which the notes are three chromatic steps apart. The chords you hear always bear this type of relationship to the pattern you are seeing, consisting of intervals which…
As a member of the Park Slope Food Coop, I've been seeing signs warning of an international organic banana shortage for months now, but I assumed it was just a seasonal fluctuation, coupled with last year's brutal hurricane season. The New Scientist claims it may be a genetic apocalypse.
Vinyl Recorder has an interesting graphic on how groove modulation works. Check out the home page, too—VR sells DIY cutters!
John Marks sends along this article about the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, a 32-ton, 6398-pipe, three-story organ that I, for one, am going to have to make a sonic destination. Be sure to visit the photo essay and other links while you're reading about the Cooper organ—there's a ton of fascinating information there.
Thanks, John!
Being addicted, or even just a fan of The New York Times means you have to suss out the necessary assumptions and become expert at translating what's really going on there. Even overlooking the woeful sports section and regular incidents of pathetic pandering—a recent travel piece by Robert Kennedy Jr. comes to mind—the institutional psychoses and attitude, subtle as they may be, that the paper infuses, again ever so delicately, into everything is quite amazing.
As a fan, I have to say that while all that is very real, there is still much to marvel over (sometimes good, sometimes bad)…
Elizabeth is leaving us, and she doesn't care.
She says, "Oh, I might stop for a second and think, 'Wow, I bet they'd really love this view, too, but I promise you: I won't be worrying about how the ad pages look.'"
It'll only be two weeks. She's going on vacation. But still: Two weeks without our managing editor? Two weeks without Elizabeth? Who knows what could happen? Without a woman to keep us tidy, on time, and tucked in, things might just get a little bit rough around here.
"Elizabeth," says JA, "when you get back, we'll still be wearing the same clothes,…
I wrote this guy off back in the 1980s, when he essentially dismissed audiophiles as kooks—and this from a computer geek? But, by God, this is worth reading.
Some unnamed genius has been blogging the Trojan War, and Achilles is now dead. Of course, he's been dead for centuries, but mother of Zeus, it seems so immediate this way.
Actually, I have to say that blogging strikes me as the bardic tradition of the 21st century—only that seems way too pompous. So, I won't.
Well, no—but here's a handy chart showing you how animal sounds are portrayed in different languages. In Japanese, Huckleberry would be purring, "Goro goro."