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Today marks the 71st birthday of a piano-playing singer-songwriter who first created a musical career through his ability to meld acerbic and/or satirical lyrics to the catchiest of tunes, then went on to forge a second career as a composer of songs and scores for films. Of course, no matter how many Toy Story movies he works on, there are still some people who are always going to think of Randy Newman as "the guy that did 'Short People,'" but he's probably got enough accolades by now to keep him from dwelling on that.
Born in Los Angeles in 1943, Randall Stuart Newman had a trio of film-score composers on his father's side of the family – Alfred, Lionel, and Emil Newman – so Randy's decision to study music at UCLA certainly found him towing the family line. (Mind you, he ultimately dropped out before graduating, but he tried, dammit, and that's what counts.) Although his initial efforts as a singer failed to earn him any significant commercial success, his songwriting took off in the early '60s when The Fleetwoods recorded his song "They Tell Me It's Summer" and used it as the B-side for "Lovers By Night, Strangers by Day." Other artists gradually followed suit, providing Newman with considerable success in the UK, where his compositions earned hits for Cilla Black ("I've Been Wrong Before"), Gene Pitney ("Nobody Needs Your Love" and "Just One Smile"), and the Alan Price Set ("Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear").
This week's installment of the Rhino Comedy Hour shines the spotlight on the big bald head of the man who's so widely known as an insult comic that his grinning mug is literally the only picture that's included on the Wikipedia page for "insult comedy." Talk about defining a genre…
Don Rickles may not owe his entire career to Frank Sinatra, but it's well documented that the Chairman of the Board went to see Rickles when he was performing at a Miami nightclub and found him so hysterical that he went out of his way to tell as many of his famous friends as possible to go see Rickles' act. In short order (or certainly shorter than it would've been without the Sinatra factor), Rickles was headlining in Las Vegas, but he was also building a side career as an actor, appearing in Run Silent, Run Deep, X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, and several of the Beach Party films. Still, it was comedy that was his real bread and butter, and Rickles further built his reputation through numerous TV appearances.
If the third Saturday in April is one of the first days you circle whenever you buy a new calendar, then you already know when Record Store Day is, but you may not be aware that the folks who put together that most vaunted of days for vinyl lovers have also gotten into the habit of making the most of the day after Thanksgiving, too.
Big surprise: we here at Rhino are getting involved in Record Store Day: Black Friday 2014, putting out nine – count 'em – nine limited-edition releases, including a little colored vinyl, a picture disc, and other cool stuff.
Oh, you want specifics, do you?
Well, since you asked nicely, here's what you should be keeping your eyes open for when you're out shopping on Friday:
Some merchants would have you believe that it was acceptable to start playing holiday music ages ago – like, say, when your kids were still trying to shop for their Halloween costumes – but most people are likely to roll their eyes at you if you break out Michael Bublé's Christmas at any point prior to the last week of November. Actually, they might still roll their eyes at you, what with these kids today, but that's neither here nor there, especially when we've given this piece a subject line that's currently making you want to scream, "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE $1,000 VISA GIFT CARD?!?"
It's the time of year to remember what you're thankful for...well, I'm thankful for these tunes dagnabbit! Enjoy!
New this week in the Rhino Room at iTunes:
Various Artists, High School High: Original Soundtrack: Back in 1996, when the reputation of genre-parody films hadn't been almost irredeemably ruined by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer…oh, okay, maybe their films aren't that bad, but they're certainly no Airplane! Anyway, what were we talking about? Right: we were getting ready to discuss High School High, the Jon Lovitz vehicle that parodies flicks like Dangerous Minds, Lean on Me, The Substitute, and so forth…or, more specifically, its soundtrack. Yes, the unexpurgated version has been available digitally for some time now, but if you're someone who prefers their hip-hop and R&B a little bit cleaned, then you're in luck, because the edited version is now available, too. You're welcome.
Hey, kids, remember a few days back when we told you about how we'd reissued the expanded version of Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos? Well, we've got more big news for you…or, rather, more Big Star news: we've reissued the band's box set, Keep an Eye on the Sky!
Yep, this is a case where those of you who got in on the goodness when it first came out don't have anything to do but consider what other great new Rhino release you're going to spend your money on instead, but if you've been toying with the idea of bulking up the Big Star section of your collection, then here's an easy way to do it with a single purchase.
40 years ago, Jethro Tull thrilled their fans by revealing that they were in the midst of working on a new project entitled WarChild. Less an album than a full-fledged event, Ian Anderson and company had big plans for not only a new studio album but also a feature-length motion picture and a soundtrack album. Unfortunately, due to the band's inability to find financing for their film, the only thing that ever saw formal release from this grand affair was a 10-song album, but at least it provided them with a bit of solace when it climbed to #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and found its way into the top 15 in the UK.
If you're a Tull fan who's often been lost in thought about what you may have missed out on seeing and hearing, you're in luck: you can now pick up a copy of WarChild: The 40th Anniversary Theater Edition, a two-CD / two-DVD set. The CDs include the original 10-track album, a collection of 11 so-called "Associated Recordings," three of which are previously unreleased, and 10 orchestral pieces which had been written for the soundtrack, nine of which are previously unreleased. As for the DVDs, those will provide you with the opportunity to see the promo for "The Third Hoorah," as well as footage from a photo session and press conference in '74 where the band first announced the WarChild project. Oh, and lest we forget, there's also an 80-page booklet which takes an in-depth look at what was intended to come to fruition, including a film script synopsis, track-by-track annotations by Anderson, and rare and unseen photographs from the era.


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As I mentioned above, after I've used the air purifier for a longer period of time I will be able to give an adequate response about the product's long-term effectiveness. I am quite satisfied so far, but these products must pass the test of time before one can really know how good it is.
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"Is anyone actually from Miami? Certainly not Hernandez, who was born in Cuba.�
One should always be wary when city officials declare they are "listening" to the people's problems. Activist Max Rameau knew this on Wednesday, when Miami City Manager Pedro Hernandez journeyed out to Umoja, Rameau's five-week-old shantytown village for the homeless in Liberty City. "I'm here t ... More >>
This just in to the Riptide desk! An earth-rattling news bulletin! Joe Arriola has nothing to say! Miami's usually braggadocious former city manager declined comment about the $1.1 million in bonuses he awarded to non-union employees earlier this year. Arriola approved the bonuses despite even ... More >>
Miriam Alonso may be under criminal investigation but that hasn't distracted her from creating her own city
So you weren't among those lucky few who dined with the king and queen? Consider it a compliment.
Airport officials want to clarify those warning signs about lead in the drinking water at MIA: Never mind! Just ignore 'em!


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It's always nice to remind ourselves of the perks of freelance writing, but I don't think there's a freelancer out there who wouldn't admit that it has its downsides as well. So I'd like to put the question out there today - what's your least favorite aspect of being a freelance writer?
Here's mine:
I used to love accounting and everything related to it. But when it comes to freelancing, I can't stand it. I'm admittedly one of the worst when it comes to keeping records - I can't claim deductions for things I should be able to (and haven't really cared), because I simply lose things.
My client files are pretty meticulous. But receipts and such.... nah. That part of the administrative side of freelancing is the worst for me. I've learned the hard way to get better about it though - I keep much more than I used to. One of these days I'll finally finish setting up a new accounting system for the business (hopefully by the first of next year), and maybe I should tack a new filing system goal onto my list.
Jennifer Mattern is a professional blogger, freelance business writer, and indie author. She began writing for clients in 1999 and started her first blog in 2004.
She owns 3 Beat Media - a publishing and client services company which operates All Indie Writers as well as several other websites and blogs including The Busy Author's Guide and BizAmmo. Jenn comes from a background in online PR and social media consulting, having owned a small PR firm for several years before choosing to pursue a full-time writing and publishing career.
Jenn also writes fiction under multiple pen names in the areas of children's fiction, mysteries, and horror fiction. Jenn is an active member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and currently serves as the organization's Assistant Coordinator of Promotions and Social Media.
Latest posts by Jennifer Mattern (see all)
- "Pay What You Can" Sale on My Marketing Boot Camp E-book, This Week Only - November 24, 2014
- Authors Attack: Dealing With Negative Book Reviewers - November 21, 2014
- All Indie Writers: New Design, Newsletter, and Other Updates - November 17, 2014
- Podcast E-book Giveaway Results - November 11, 2014
- Princess Jones to Guest Co-Host the All Indie Writers Podcast - November 10, 2014
10 Comments
Fast-approaching deadlines. Actually, don't all deadlines approach too quickly?
For me it's the feeling of being in endless 'interview' mode – the constant necessity to get that new client. I'm good at selling myself in words, but a bit reluctant when it's face to face!
That's why I love online networking :o)
Marketing, marketing, marketing. I can't stand it. To be successful it's necessary to some degree, but I find the whole process distasteful.
For me it's the severe highs and lows. I'll go from being super busy or on a project high to dribbles of work. I try to take advantage of both and express gratitude for it, but it can be tough.
Accounting is pretty hard to keep up with, especially when you have multiple income streams to keep up with.
I have to agree with LS that marketing is my least favorite part. Responding to job ads isn't so bad, but figuring out how to approach "cold" and "warm" prospects isn't so easy. The constant putting yourself out there is a little taxing and time-consuming. When it pays off, though, you'll get no complaints from me.
The ups and downs in income… I love those periods when I have a big project that pays monthly or some such.
Savings turns out to be my answer to this.
Anne Wayman, now blogging at www.aboutfreelancewriting.com
By far, the accounting end of things. Even with a bookkeeper/CPA… still hate it!
When someone prefers a phone interview to an email interview. Not lazy — but making phone calls through a relay service takes too much out of the equation and I don't feel in charge of the interview.
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You are not seeing a double entry of the same blog but this entry is to provide you with the link to the e-book version of the book, which is downloadable for free! Just click on the html below.
Singapore Soundscape e-book
Feeling Existentialist.
01 October 2014
Singapore Soundscape - Link to access the E-book version now!
Posted by Psychmetalfreak at 10/01/2014 0 comments Links to this post
28 September 2014
Singapore Soundscape - A Book on the History of the musics on the island republic
National Library Board and National Arts Council in Singapore has finally published the book. Yes, arguably one of the first books locally to trace the historical journeys of music and the various music scenes (classical, jazz, Malay, Tamil, Chinese, etc.) in Singapore. It also included chapters on government policies on music education, histories of school bands, choirs, etc. as well, to make it an interesting anthology for anyone who is keen to find out more about the island republic in the past century.
I contributed an overview chapter on the history of English language popular music (Chapter 8), and I have included accounts of the vibrant rock scene of the 1960s, the lean years of the 1970s and early 1980s, key local music figures like Chris Ho (X' Ho), Dick Lee, and many more. Not as in-depth as I have wanted it to be but, hopefully, a start for the documentation of the so-far under-written past of Singapore's musical path. One thing which I think I might have done it right would be a substantial portion of it has been dedicated to the independent/underground music scene of the late 1980s and 1990s, so Chris Ho's Rediffusion programmes, music mag BigO and related developments were outlined in the chapter.
It is not for sale (which is good), copies will be available in all NLB branches for loan and it will be available online via NLB site Music SG very soon.
Posted by Psychmetalfreak at 9/28/2014 0 comments Links to this post
24 August 2014
Beyond Sound in Sound Art: Society and Politics in the Art of Yasunao Tone and Akio Suzuki
I wrote an essay on the impact and influence of Yasunao Tone and Akio Suzuki awhile ago for my Masters course. Something which I thought would be good to share with whoever is interested in sound art, experimental sound, Japanese artists and the interface between the arts and society. Not a very well-written piece of work, I hazard, but leave a comment, message or idea if you do feel like it.
Here it goes:
Here it goes:
"Machines are designed not to make mistakes, in our behaviour we often make mistakes, so why not machines also. I add that reality to it. So it's not destruction but an addition."
Yasunao Tone,
.Sound artist, Fluxus artist, composer, all-round provocateur
Sound Art
The history of sound art has been a case of displacement and misplacement. It has been displaced due to the nature of the medium – sound, a phenomenon which is heard and felt but not seen. In a visually dominated world like ours, this spelt the relegation of the importance of sound and audio sensitivity in a human's perception, cognition and consciousness. It is misplaced as it is more often categorically subsumed under the other art form, music: it is either considered as modern composition, noise, free improvisation or electronica. Sound art is in fact one of the most ancient of art forms when the name of Greek god of wind, Aeolus, was used to christened the Aeolian harp. The harp is a wooden instrument well-known in the ancient world in the West which is played not by a human agent but instead, via the force of nature, wind. The first instance of sound art is thus both a tribute to the powers of the supernatural as well as the revelling of nature.
Sound art in the late 20th century and early 21st century is often defined by academics and critics as a new and novel form of art[1]. Once again it is another case of displacement and misplacement. For the former situation, sound art is posited as the use of sound to continue the pathway opened up by conceptual artists since the 1960s, albeit focusing on the sonic canvas, the unseen vibrations in the air. For the latter, it is usually described as a-political or a-social as the emphasis is always about the sonic properties and its aesthetics and only that[2]. The traditional art criticism and art historical writing of the symbiotic relationships between artwork and the society and political milieu which spawn them are almost always left out. If any mention of the society and politics is included, it is usually tacked conveniently under the general biographies of the artists without further cross-studying of the artists' work with that of their socio-economic context.
The two case studies which will be discussed in this paper will foreground the social and political contexts of the artists as well as their responses to these socio-political conditions to demonstrate that sound art, just like any other art forms like paintings, music and theatre, is reflexive of the times of the creators, and more. The two sound artists are from Japan, a country which due to its unique post-World War II history as well as its past before the Pacific War, but they exemplify two different takes on their socio-economic and political settings since the 1960s. Both artists were born and brought up during the most tumultuous period of time in 20th century Japan. Both grew up in the strangely schizophrenic era of initial post-War humiliation and extreme poverty and then, taking an abrupt about-turn swiftly to become one of the most powerful nations, economically, within a short span of ten years (late 1940s to late 1950s). The military antagonisms against the USA during the War from 1941 to the devastation of two Japanese cities from the deadliest man-made weapons ever, the atomic bombs in 1945, created a permanent mark in the national psyche of the Japanese people. The Americans then, due to Cold War politics, decided to resurrect Japan as quickly as possible as it was viewed strategically as a viable ally in its containment of the Communist states in Asia. This led to the subsequent sponsoring of the defeated nation economically to boost its drained capacity to that of global status by the 1960s[3]. The tension of such rapid and fortuitous turn-of-event for Japan was viewed apprehensively by many Japanese who experienced these rapidly changing developments.
On one hand the influx of Euro-American ideas and products fed the hunger of the Japanese to seek actively for something elsewhere to replace the failed militaristic and culturally/historically-derived nationalism of the previous decades and many saw the opportunities opened up in the post-war years as a great avenue to change Japan fundamentally from its conservative and conformist traditions[4]. On the other hand however, many also questioned the rampant consumerist-driven materialism brought in by the Americans as threatening the values and morals of the people. Their criticism also extended to the acute commodification of almost everything around them. This dichotomy thus presented to the artists, writers and all with the necessary fuel to channel their personal critique on the politics and society of Japan.
One interesting trait which is discernible in many of the Japanese art collectives and artists emerging in the 1950s and 1960s demonstrated clear debt to their Japanese culture – the emphasis on simplicity, inter-connectedness of things and the disregard of western notion of categorisation, genre and form as well as the foregrounding of the concept of non-permanence which one can not only attribute to certain aspects of Japanese aesthetics but to Zen Buddhism and Shintoism as well. Key groups like Gutai, Fluxus Japan and Monoha are just some of the more historically well-known examples[5].
The two following case studies will highlight the significance of such influences and traits commonly found in Japanese artists as well as pointing out how these artists channel some of these sensibilities to their choice of art medium – sound.
Back to Nature: A case study of Akio Suzuki
Born in 1941 in the then Japanese colony of Korea, Akio Suzuki, were repatriated back to Japan with his parents after the War. Due to the huge import of Euro-American influences culturally, he was exposed to the ideas of iconoclasts like John Cage and David Tudor and their then revolutionary introduction of chance and conceptual understanding of the arts[6]. In 1963, he was working in an architect's office and he came upon a curious thought. He was examining the possibility of making a staircase which would not tire out the users but in fact provide pleasure for whoever stepping on it when it stirred in him the novel idea of a perfect staircase which would look like a musical stave and thus if he dropped a ping pong ball down it, the sounds it created should correspondingly be beautiful. This spurred him on to start on his first actions, which Suzuki coined Self Study Events[7]. He went to a train station in Nagoya and he tipped a dustbin down a staircase. The sounds created was horrible and he was in fact, looked on with disdain by the public as many of them picked up the rubbish which was scattered all over the base of the staircase (Fig. 1). It was perceived by the other Japanese as an act of public nuisance and inappropriate social behaviour. Undeterred, he threw down another bin and this time round he was arrested by the police[8]. Suzuki's first work was both norm-challenging and thought-provoking for the etiquette-particular Japanese society.
Similar to many Happenings which were taking place in the major cities of Japan due to the absorption of such marvellous creative but provocative acts towards the society in the West, the authority and the crass consumerism many of these artists witnessed around them, Suzuki found that the experiments (like the one described above) to be unsatisfactorily and he decided to hit the books to help boost himself intellectually to help him understand the world around better. This was, he hoped, to provide ideas for him to come up with more meaningful and more impactful artistic endeavours in the future. He subsequently developed his next stage of works entitled, Throwing and Following. He would project sound into a space and he would follow the consequential resonance of it in the time and space. This opened him up to a better understanding of the objects around him and in turn he could use them more effectively to generate sounds in spaces[9]. He thus gradually grasped the interactivity between material, sonic properties of objects and the resonances and echoes produced which then fed into his mature works in the 1970s.
In the 1970s he hand-crafted one of his most signature sound art tools, the Analapos. It is built from two cylindrical resonators connected long springs. The instrument explores the reverberation of springs, the resonance of vessels and the transmission of signals between two physically linked terminals. The tool also reacts differently from space to space as the reverberation and resonances generated vary from one venue to another. The simplicity of the tools betrayed a few principal ideals of Suzuki: his subtle commentary on the hyper-modernisation of the Japanese society and the growing estrangement between individuals in such a materialist-driven, dog-eat-dog environment with the overemphasis on science, technology and human agency. Just like most of his sound art pieces/performance works, Suzuki wants to reclaim the human-ness of art by consciously incorporating human interaction when using the tools/instruments. He also wants to alert his audience/listeners to pay attention to their surroundings once again. He has since the 1970s increasingly performed in open or natural settings, inviting the audiences to join him in such back-to-nature creation of his sound art. This can perhaps be linked back to the Japanese religious and aesthetical reverence of nature. The famous Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto is a case in point and it is just one of the more famous ones anyone could think of. Kyoto city alone is literally peppered with shrines and temples of such.
Coming back to the Analapos, its use in the wide-open natural context can reap hugely surprising results as the tool reacts in novel manners with the winds, the humidity, the openness and altitude of the space as well as the resonating human bodies in its vicinity[10]. No single event can be repeated. This reflects prominently the unpredictability of nature and the state of our world and sometimes humans cannot do much beyond just marvel at such phenomena.
He also created site-specific events which involved the audience to travel to a space close his current residence in Tango, Japan, to immerse themselves in the piece with him, his installation space and the elements. Suzuki calls the venue his dream space and he constructed and coined it Space in the Sun. The venue is found on a mountain top in rural Tango under the direct purview of the sun. The site consists of two crumbling and identical 17 metre by 3.5 metre facing walls. The walls were built from 20,000 handmade sun-baked loam bricks. They are separated by a 7 metre floor space constructed from the same materials as the walls[11]. There are many "imperfections" found at the site such as the almost ubiquitous cowpats left there by the herds which visited the site daily. The howling winds which surge through and around the walls can be deafening. Once in a while, one can hear the odd bird call, a lowing cow or the distant farm machinery. As one strolls through the site, the sounds come together to suggest a confluence of nature and man-make phenomenon around us even in such rural settings as Tango. Akio Suzuki's intentions are thus not so much of a rejection of human agency and modernisation in a simplistic fashion but instead Suzuki is presenting to us a conundrum of the nature-versus-human essentialism of man. With regards to Suzuki's nature-based works, his good friend and writer in Japan, Shin Nakagawa, wrote that, "The act of listening to Nature while at the same time destroying Nature forms an interesting contrast[12]." For one to go back to Nature and rejecting human agency, in fact, still involves actively, the agency of man on the chosen site of return.
Akio Suzuki's sound art and works therefore stemmed from his understanding of the dilemma of modern Japan as well as modern society as a whole. This explains why his works are simultaneously parochial and universal in its message and therefore in the 1980s when he participated in Documenta 8 (Kassel, 1987), he received rapturous response from all in attendance. While we go back to nature to embrace it we are still interfering with it. When one critiques the process of modernisation and its supposed ills, one needs to realise the inevitability of human agency on this planet. Suzuki's relatively understated comments on the world via his sound art is thus thought-provoking and they force us to delve deeper into the interconnectedness of things and to see beyond the black-and-white of things which most people are so conveniently latching onto when critiquing the world around them[13]. He is thus not providing a didactical answer but through his works we can perhaps be triggered to contemplate a bit more: humans are maybe too egotistical to lay all blame on human agency as Nature often fights back or react to us in mysterious ways which we can never predict. We are but one with nature after all.
Taking Technology by its horns: The many tales of Yasunao Tone
Yasunao Tone was born in 1935 in Tokyo, Japan. He thus witnessed the atrocities of the war in close proximity when the Allied planes carpet bombed Tokyo on a daily basis towards the end of the war. The surrender of Japan after the dropping of the two horrifying atomic bombs and the subsequent events in Japan and its initial hellish existence in the first post-war years was experienced first-hand by Tone. However like many who grew up and were being exposed to the influx of Western ideas and books in the 1950s provided creative and cultural fuel for him and many to embrace modernism. Neither a trained musician nor artist, Tone went to Chiba University to study literature[14]. This did not stop him from exploiting the world around him for creative ends. He first dived into "music" making but of a Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist type.
"We thought… our improvisational performance could be a form of automatic writing, in a sense that the drip painting of Jackson Pollock was a form of automatic writing."
He formed the music group, Group Ongaku in the 1950s with his fellow enthusiasts and an archival CD/LP of the group was released in recent years which shocked many as their pieces sounded like the works of equivalent outfits in Euro-America like AMM, MEV and Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza (which featured renown film composer Ennio Morricone) but Tone and company were way earlier than the rest of them[15]. Group Ongaku's counterparts in the west were all formed in the mid to late 1960s and this provides ample evidence challenging the common historical narrative that the west has always been the avant-garde in modern arts and culture.
Tone also linked up with the who's who of the Japanese art and music avant-garde in the late 1950s and 1960s: Takehisa Kosugi (who founded the acclaimed performance group Taj Mahal Travellers in the 1970s as well as serving his residence as music director of Merce Cunningham Dance Company later that decade), Yoko Ono, infamous Japanese performance art group Hi Red Centre and avant-garde composer Ichiyanagi Toshi (who amongst many, worked with John Cage and polymath poet, director and playwright Shuji Terayama)[16]. He was involved in the Hi Red Centre anti-Olympic performance piece during the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, Cleaning Piece, which saw him and all participated and posed as street cleaners in the business district of Ginza, stopping traffic for three hours and in fact receiving cooperation from the unknowing police[17]. Tone was working and collaborating actively in a milieu which demonstrates rabid inter-disciplinary intent and even border-erasing outcomes which had clear resonance with the utopian and counter-cultural fervour felt by so many artists in both Japan and the West during the 1960s.
Suzuki was also a key member of Fluxus Japan and he contributed tapes and scores to Fluxus founder George Maciunas and he was involved in the performances of Fluxus pieces in Japan in the 1960s and in New York later on. His penchant for irreverence prompted him to comment in recent years that Fluxus was only properly historically meaningful from 1962-66, and that while the works are being exhibited in the museums today, to him it meant that these works are being stripped of their original intentions and functions of being handled and played by both the artists and the audiences[18]. The same spirit gleaned here is similar to Tone's artistic purpose and the conceptualisation of his sound art which he started creating since the 1960s. His disdain and questioning of modern technology in the post-World-War-II world of today and the associated techno-fetish of modern society to any new fanged media/technology basically served as fodder for his deconstruction and re-conceptualisation of some of these technological products in his sound art.
Despite Tone's key role in the various contemporary art fields since the 1950s, he was a relative unknown figure until recently. This was due to the fact that his works from the 1950s to the 1970s were largely transient-based happenings and performance pieces. It was also due to the fact that Tone was residing far away from the world cultural capitals i.e. the west that he suffered from the more Euro-American biased focus on Fluxus, the Happenings and related art movements in Euro-America by critics and historians in those years. Only when he went to New York in the 1970s, and also with the advent of improved recording technologies in sound and video, Tone was more willing and was thus enabled to document his works.
Tone's most famous work is his mid-1980s "wounded CDs". The direct inspiration of this phase of his works was a book entitled Science Seminar For The Familiar[19]. The part which captured Tone's imagination was a chapter on digital recording, which highlighted to him the error correction programme in CD players which kicks in if a one is misread as zero in the machine's binary codes. Since the error creates a totally different sound, unknown of, he then embarked on a path to override the error correcting system. Eventually, he was suggested by a friend to put Scotch tape with many pinholes in it on the CD itself[20].
The initial impressions one gets upon hearing the outcomes when these "wounded" CDs are played in the machines are that of typical CD skipping/malfunctioning due to surface blemishes. The actual mechanism behind, however, is more than that. As Tone shares, "… numbers are altered so it becomes totally different information. The Scotch tape enables me to make burst errors without significantly affecting the system and stopping the machine[21]." Tone's interventions in the process of the readings of CDs are actually acts of creative noise. By disrupting the machines which are supposed to be the state of the art technology back in the 1980s when the world was moving from the analogue to the digital in many fields of everyday science, Tone successfully questions and re-inscribes the supposed prescribed workings of an increasingly ordered (albeit big corporation-dictated/sponsored) contemporaneity of the triumphant neo-liberal capitalist paradigm.
Tone wants to interrogate the triumphalism of new scientific and technological "breakthroughs" in the post-War years. With every new product such as this, the media and the corporations together will seemingly snap into a frenzy to valorise the "invincibility" of the product. The fascination with the new and technologically clued-in perpetuates the wave after wave of consumer craze to overturn the existing goods to embrace the new with scant sense of deeper consideration. For example, when the 12-inch vinyl album appeared in the market in the 1960s, it swiftly overtook the previously dominant 7-inch vinyl single format. And when CDs were introduced into the market in the 1980s with the promise amongst many, of its longer playtime, the needlessness to flip the disc over after 20 minutes and of course the purportedly indestructible nature of the CD sent the consumer markets all over to discard the vinyl format to the small shiny plastic discs. Tone's experiments question this notion head-on: are new technologies necessarily better? He seems to be probing a deeper issue of that of an uncritical celebration of contemporary scientism and modernisation around the world.
To bring his irreverence for technology up-to-date, Tone ventures into interrogating the next big thing in recent years – MP3 files. In 2009, Tone started collaborating with a team of the New Aesthetics in Computer Music (NACM) at Music Research Centre at the University of York in UK in 2009[22]. Tone wished to develop new software based on the disruption of the MP3. Originally Tone wanted to explore the intervention of the MP3 as reproducing device by interfering with the interface across its main elements (the ones and zeros), the compression encoder and decoder. However the initial outcomes were unsatisfactory.
Then Tone and his team discovered that by corrupting the sound file in the MP3 format, it would lead to the generation of error messages which could be utilised to assign various lengths of samples automatically. By combining the different playing speeds of the samples, it could produce unpredictable and unknowable sound. To further enrich the software, Tone's team also incorporates other possible elements into the software like flipping stereo channels and phasing ranges which would produce different pitches and timbres[23].
Tone used the software as a performance art tool several times at the MRC at the University of York. He has since also performed in public in Kyoto, Japan, in May 2009 as well as New York City in 2010 and many more subsequent events lined up. He has also produced a CD documenting his performances of his pieces using the said software.
While the conceptualisation and eventual production/utilisation of the software might be as irreverent as Tone's wounded CDs but it is consistent with Tone's subtle but consistent socio-political critique and his artistic harnessing of the latest consumer-based technology. Even though the first converting, uploading and sharing of MP3 files of existing CDs into the internet in the mid-1990s began more as an act of wilful rebellion, Tone wants to examine the by-now ubiquitous format on which contemporary life is based upon – the ones and zeros head on. In fact, MP3 format not only allows the ease of transfer and sharing of data but it is almost physically empty except for its physical carriers and vehicles like computer hard disks, mobile phones and the Cloud. While like most other consumer-based technologies, MP3 or its other extant formats like MP4, Lossless, etc., seems to be used by people as medium of consumption of everyday life for their hectic and often dreary existence, most do not see the often possible misuse and abuse of technologies to break out of the by-now big corporate push of gadgets leveraging on such formats to churn out products endlessly.
Tone and his team recognise the potential of the MP3 to be distorted and reconfigured for creative purposes in music and performance art fields. He wants to demonstrate that modern society can and should break out of the passive consumption of technological products and question and thus create using the seemingly static use of modern technology. Tone's art projects belie the belief that reclaiming the role of an individual and conversely the society to not be enslaved by their new gadgets and toys but to interrogate them and abuse them innovatively.
Yasunao Tone is thus an artistic humanist who is concerned with not only the society and politics of Japan or his immediate surroundings. It is always an on-going search and re-creation for a more considered human perception and re-think of the relevance and role of science and technology today. His message and agenda is about alerting us to be always circumspective about the impact of technology on all human life at the end of the day.
Yasunao Tone and Akio Suzuki seem to come from two very different and even opposing rationales towards their art making. However they are both very interested in the tension of humanity, technological advancement and the natural world we all live in today. The recent nuclear and natural disasters in 2011 in Japan were an alarm for all: despite all our advancement in the sciences, we are still at the mercy of nature as well as our own human-driven scientific follies. Suzuki shows us the way back to nature, but he does not romanticise it. In fact, he highlights the irony between humankind embracing and destroying nature concurrently in whatever we do. Tone on the other hand, leads us into the core of new scientific products and deconstructs them to reveal to us the blind-spots we have towards technology. Their projects are not about the local society and its parochial views and politics but they are actually about the society and politics of all human kind. In other words, something more universal and all-encompassing.
Adlington, Robert (ed.) Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the Sixties. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009.
Cope, Julian. Japrocksampler. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007.
Kelly, Caleb (ed.). Sound. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel Gallery & The MIT Press, 2011.
Kim-Cohen, Seth. In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-cochlear Sonic Art. London: Continuum Books, 2009.
Kopf, Biba. "Global Ear: Tango/Sapporo"The Wire issue 239 January 2004 14. London: The Wire, 2004.
LaBelle, Brandon. Background Noise Perspectives on Sound Art. London: Continuum Books, 2010.
LaBelle, Brandon and Steve Roden (eds.). Site of Sound: Of Architecture & the Ear. Los Angeles & Santa
Monica: Errant Bodies Press & Smart Art Press, 1999.
Licht, Alan. "Yasunao Tone – Random Tone Burst" in The Wire issue 223 September 2002 30-33. London: The
Wire, 2002.
Migone, Christof. Sonic Somatic: Performance of the Unsound Body. Los Angeles: Errant Bodies Press, 2012.
Munroe, Alexandra. Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994.
Suzuki, Akio. K7 Box (CD). ALM Records/Kojima Recordings, Inc. 2007.
Suzuki, Akio. Odds and Ends (2xCD). Hören 2002.
Tone, Yasunao. MP3 Deviations #6+7 (CD). Editions Mego 2011.
Tone, Yasunao. Yasunao Tone (CD). Asphodel 2003.
Toop, David. "Akio Suzuki – Acoustic Trickster" in The Wire issue 231 May 2003. London: The Wire, 2003.
Toop, David. "On Location – Akio Suzuki: London School of Oriental and African Studies UK" in The Wire issue
218 April 2002. London: The Wire, 2002.
Various. Yasunao Tone: Noise Media Language. Los Angeles: Errant Bodies Press, 2007.
Various. Around by Soundpocket 1 Programme Catalogue. Hong Kong: Soundpocket, 2010.
Yang, Yeung (ed.). Pocket: 1 – Around. Hong Kong: Soundpocket, 2010.
[1] For more please see: Caleb Kelly (ed.) , Sound, London/Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel Gallery/The MIT Press, 2011; Brandon LaBelle, Background Noise Perspectives on Sound Art, London: Continuum Books, 2010; and Seth Kin-Cohen, In the Blink of an Ear – Toward a Non-cochlear Sonic Art, London: Continuum Books, 2009.
[2] Please refer to: Brandon LaBelle & Steve Roden (eds.), Site of Sound: Of Architecture & the Ear, Los Angeles/Santa Monica: Errant Bodies Press/Smart Art Press, 1999; Christof Migone, Sonic Somatic, Los Angeles: Errant Bodies Press, 2012 and footnote 1.
[3] Julian Cope, Japrocksampler, London: Bloomsbury, 2007, pp.23-40.
[4] Ibid., pp.41-72.
[5] For more details see Alexandra Munroe, Japanese Art After 1945 – Scream Against The Sky, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994.
[6] David Toop, "Akio Suzuki – Acoustic Trickster" in The Wire issue 231 May 2003, p.12.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Biba Kopf, "Global Ear: Tango/Sapporo" in The Wire issue 239 January 2004, p.14.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Akio Suzuki, "Akio Suzuki" in Yang, Yeung (ed.), Pocket: 1 – Around, Hong Kong: Soundpocket, 2010, p.82.
[14] Alan Licht, "Yasunao Tone - Random Tone Bursts" in The Wire issue 223 September 2002, p.31.
[15] Ibid.
[16] William A. Marotti, "Sounding the Everyday: the Music group and Yasunao Tone's early work" in Various, Yasunao Tone: Noise Media Language, Los Angeles: Errant Bodies Press, 2007, pp. 13-33.
[17] Cope, pp.54-57.
[18] Licht, p.31.
[19] Licht, p.32.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Yasunao Tone, in sleevenotes to CD album, MP3 Deviations #6+7.
[23] Ibid.
Posted by Psychmetalfreak at 8/24/2014 0 comments Links to this post
17 August 2014
HO TZU NYEN's Cloud of Unknowing coming to you in this year's SINGAPORE NIGHT FESTIVAL 2014 at SAM
It is great news to know that Ho Tzu Nyen, one of the top artists of Singapore, will be bringing his Venice Biennale (2011) piece to the Singapore Night Festival 2014. Anyone who has seen the film component of the work alone would be intrigued, perplexed, bewildered or all of the above at the end of the 20 plus minutes of its duration. To top it up, you are also getting the real-time experience of immersing in the smoke and lighting which seems to spill out from the video.
However, the coming event at SAM is no mere replication of what the international audiences had gone through in Venice in 2011. In fact, the Venetian staging of the work might be a tad less interactive and less sensorily-engaging then this coming Friday and Saturday. For the Night Festival, the Chapel in Singapore Art Museum not only will host the screening of the video with the accompanying smoke and lighting, two esteemed and acclaimed musicians/artists will be performing live to the work real-time. They are Bani Haykal and Randolf Arriola. Haykal was one of the main members of renowned local post/avant rock group, B Quartet and just recently he was a member of another critically acclaimed Singapore avant rock group, The Observatory. Arriola on the other hand can be considered as Singapore's very own Frippertronics expert and loop-based composer in the veins of a varied but aesthetically convergent international artists and musicians like Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Terry Riley and etc. Given Ho's penchant for close collaboration with musicians in many of his works, this should be another slice of mind-boggling trip.
Venue: Chapel, Singapore Art Museum
Date: 29 and 30 August, 2014
Time: 9:30pm and 10:45pm
Be there...
More details on the event and the other Night Festival items, see Singapore Night Festival 2014.
Posted by Psychmetalfreak at 8/17/2014 0 comments Links to this post
11 August 2014
Big Black VERSUS St Vincent in KEROSENE
Big Black, one of the quintessential post hardcore punk bands of the 1980s,wrote one of the most affecting songs since the 1980s, "Kerosene".
I was born in this town
Live here my whole life
Probably come to die in this town
Live here my whole life
Never anything to do in this town
Live here my whole life
Never anything to do in this town
Live here my whole life
Probably learn to die in this town
Live here my whole life
Nothing to do, sit around at home
Sit around at home, stare at the walls
Stare at each other and wait till we die
Stare at each other and wait till we die
Probably come to die in this town
Live here my whole life
There's Kerosene around, something to do
There's Kerosene around, she's something to do
There's Kerosene around, she's something to do
There's Kerosene around, we'll find something to do
Kerosene around, she's something to do
Kerosene around, set me on fire
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire
Kerosene around, something to do
There's Kerosene around, find something to do
There's Kerosene around, find something to do
Kerosene around, find something to do
Kerosene around, she's something to do
Kerosene around, set me on fire
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire
Kerosene around, she's something to do
Kerosene around, now what do we do?
Jumped Kerosene, now what do we do?
Jumped Kerosene, now what do we do?
Kerosene around, nothing to do
Jumped Kerosene, now what do we do?
Never anything to do in this town
Never anything but jump Kerosene
Never anything to do in this town
Never anything
Jump Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire, Kerosene
Set me on fire
Seems and reads dated? Maybe it's even more relevant today, in the post-ideological age of the 21st century when nothing much matters, existentially, really.
By the way, Big Black performs it live in the 1980s the video below. BUT interestingly, St Vincent covered it a couple of years ago, so see the video after and decide for yourself.
Posted by Psychmetalfreak at 8/11/2014 0 comments Links to this post
24 July 2014
Extreme Music & Gender issue - METALLLL.....!!!!
On the tiny republic I am on today, gender issues seem to one of the most hotly debated topics. For those of you who are not from here, we had a recent Pink Dot gathering which attracted tens of thousands of people, both straight and LGBT amongst its ranks, to show their support for the legalisation of certain un-natural private behaviours. In response to this, a counter-movement calling itself White Dot tried to uphold the status quo.
Then just a couple of weeks later, a couple of books became the spotlight. Two books allegedly promoting some form of LGBT behaviour have been pulled from the local government library shelves and they were supposed to be pulped by the authorities. A whirlwind of pro and anti activism swarmed the local press and events for days.
The following article is very appropriate for the above-mentioned hooha. It's published by the top extreme metal magazine, Terrorizer, on the issue of LGBT and extreme metal. Read and decide for yourself...
Posted by Psychmetalfreak at 7/24/2014 1 comments Links to this post
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text:
Category: dating
09/16/07 07:08 - 61ºF - ID#41132
this smile might last until tomorrow.
well, this weekend has just been great. a lot of family time- some charades, my all time fav game. and time spent with cute little cousins, spoiling them and whatnot.
for the times i miss going out and partying hard, its sometimes nice to be able to wake up, not puking and wanting to die. and, its nice to have lots of people around, to talk to. they also drive me mad, but i love them.
anyways, onto the good stuff.
i am rumored to be dating this doctor, who everyone is saying, like me. this is hilarious. because, a. i am not dating him, and b. i jave only met him twice. lol. not that i would turn him down i he did ask, but its like telephone at this hospital, how the stories circulate so fast.
i met this guy at a party a few weeks ago, and well, i didn't think i'd hear from him. but he got in touch and wants to take me out. like pick me up and take me out. kinda innocent coming from a not so innocent crazy party night hook-up. he's got a hot bod. we shall see...
i think i need to ditch the brit. i mean, when did he pick me up and take me out??? im so over it. not that it is taking any getting over. but maybe ill keep him around as a friend, he's fun to talk to. and he's funny.
a few mintues ago, this other dr, told me i look like im older than 30. and then i thought he left the hospital, and then two mintues later, he called to ask me out. wtf? ok, so not happening. because, he is old. like 50 something. not hot. also sleeping with my friend. so. not happening. of course, he said it would be platonic, but i doubt he has platonic in mind!
oh, az, how you surprise me with lively happenings!
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/41132/this_smile_might_last_until_tomorrow_.html
Words: 328
Location: Buffalo, NY
09/14/07 09:01 - 64ºF - ID#41103
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/41103/photos_.html
Words: 82
Location: Buffalo, NY
09/14/07 08:49 - 64ºF - ID#41101
mesage to lisa and photos!
not sure which lisa wrote to me....
(e:lisa) ?
anyway, im in arizona. woot.
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/41101/mesage_to_lisa_and_photos_.html
Words: 15
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: school
09/12/07 08:51 - 62ºF - ID#41069
i am going to fail
oracle sucks. i hate it. i can't memorize all of thse commands. an now i have to go spend 3 1/2 hrs in this godamn godforsaken classroom, not having any idea what is going on. and i had no time to eat today, because i have been at school all day, and im hungry and tired.
i so want to go home, but i can't miss class, or i will get dropped. because they don't let you miss any class here. not that i could go home anyways, because i have zero clue what is going on, and i need a tutor!
im just going to go talk to this guy tomorrow and see what i should do to make this better. i can't get a bad grade....
this is how ill look in class... thinking.... what will i eat later and what boy can i seduce into becoming my sql+ tutor????
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/41069/i_am_going_to_fail.html
Words: 230
Location: Buffalo, NY
09/05/07 01:18 - 76ºF - ID#40947
computer talk
so paul and i can talk computer. and to party of course. but i feel that paul can be my computer mentor and really show me lots of cool stuff!
im getting a little confused with all this computer shit. i guess i need to be a bit more diligent in my studies.
less boys. more computer time!
that being said, i must go shower and go to class to spend more time with computer.
i think im going to name my laptop... any suggestions???
and i think im sick of boys. for a week at least. the whole charade just gets tiring. really. im tired. plus this means i can also devote more time to sunbathing, grey's, and perefecting my wardrobe. and i think i feel a painting coming on here sometime soon. my lack of artfulness in the past two months is really just sad.
and i might find god in the next two weeks, because my crazy ass aunt and uncle who are the biggest jesus freaks known to man are here, and im sure ready to baptise and convert me. dear god. (not to offend anyone here- im just not religious one bit, and i find it offensive that these two can't keep it to themselves. spirituality is supposed to be a personal thing afterall, isn't it?).
sorry for all the pics of me, but i feel like more people will read my journal if they see there is a pic in it. tricky huh? plus, im still waiting for my damn usb cord to come...
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/40947/computer_talk.html
Words: 270
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: youtube
09/01/07 09:04 - 67ºF - ID#40888
just because im really bored at work
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/40888/just_because_im_really_bored_at_work.html
Words: 27
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: youtube
09/01/07 09:04 - 67ºF - ID#40887
just because im really bored at work
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/40887/just_because_im_really_bored_at_work.html
Words: 27
Location: Buffalo, NY
09/01/07 12:57 - 71ºF - ID#40880
work is for jerks
however, i am supposed to do a shitload of schoolwork, on monday, see my grammy, and other fam, and hang out with my little cousin.
im a people pleaser, people!
anyway, it looks like i need to start using my day planner more. and i need more vodka, since i have only consumed about three drinks this week, and i think they were all beer. i think my drastic reduction in alcohol comsumption has been a major contributing factor to the reason that i have lost weight and keep losing it. not gonna complain bout that peoples.
umm, ill be at the party via video, so stop by and say hi! woot.
what else... check out this website , its a real jewel- this dude showed it to me last night. oh scottsdale, classiest place on earth!
and for shits and giggles...
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/40880/work_is_for_jerks.html
Words: 177
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: macbook
08/30/07 02:08 - 75ºF - ID#40823
i freaking love this thing!!!
oh, and i met a cute new boy. and he's actually nice/not sketchy, and he has super cute style and goooood music taste!!! and i have a stalker who keeps calling/texting and sayng sorry for being psycho. theres never any good way to say sorry for being crazy. i mean, he can say all the sorries he wants, but the point is that he is crazy, and he tells me he loves me after like 4 dates. and he wonders why i wont speak to him???? seriously, he didn't get any, and i didn't act super into him. ah well.
oh and the other night, i was at this coffee place/bar and this girl is making out with the barrista.bartender, and im so distracted, i can barely focus on the convo at hand. then it finally stops. and those girls leave, and this other girl struts in, and immediately starts making out with the bartender!!! i was telling the person i was with, she is not the same girl, becuase i am a girl and i pay attention to outfits, and she was wearing something different and looked different, and i was thinking how crazy it would be if she made out with the bartender and she did!!!!!!! that coffee place/bar is nuts and im going back soon...
here's some pics from the video chat!!!
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/40823/i_freaking_love_this_thing_.html
Words: 268
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: macbook
08/29/07 11:18 - 80ºF - ID#40801
Permalink: http://estrip.org/articles/read/lilho/40801/why_.html
Words: 24
Location: Buffalo, NY
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text:
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL)
The Company is a global semiconductor provider of analog, mixed-signal, digital signal processing and embedded microprocessor integrated circuits.
I'll admit that I'm just following Einhorn on this one.I find that he and I line up well philosophically on a lot of investment ideas and apparently he had some commentary in his recent investor level about how undervalued this company is.I'm green thumbing this more as a tracking position so that I don't lose track of this idea. I want to do some research of my own to decide if this is an idea that I want to pursue with real money or not.


text:
Relevant offers
We've all heard the old adage "a change is as good as a holiday," but after several particularly unsatisfying sessions of rearranging the furniture, attempting to cook ambitious meals and briefly considering being a brunette, I decided it's a load of rubbish so loaded my family into the car and set off to seek adventure.
Living in New Zealand means a diverse range of options for holidays are on our doorstep, and being a tourist in your own country actually has a lot going for it. From the Kapiti and Horowhenua regions we are in easy reach of many interesting places, one of which is Rangitikei.
The region stretches from south Taranaki to the North Island Volcanic Plateau, forming a trapezium shape and covering some 4500 square kilometres. Its towns are Taihape, Bulls, Marton, Mangaweka and Hunterville.
Travelling on State Highway 1 means passing through most of these places, but in the past I had viewed them just as coffee stops. I now know they have a lot more going for them.
Between Mangaweka and Taihape lies Mokai Rd, a spectacular rural drive that takes you on bridges over ravines of a stomach- dropping height. Perched on the edge of one of these cliffs is Gravity Canyon, an adrenalin-junkie's mecca, where those of a strong disposition can throw themselves from a monstrously high bridge while attached to various ropes and harnesses.
The centre is staffed by friendly people who assure you it's fine and they've not had a single death. Reassuring I suppose, but I sent my husband to be the guinea-pig.
Options include New Zealand's highest bridge bungy (80 metres) over the canyon, a swing with a 50m freefall and a flying fox that reaches speeds of 160kmh. Gravity Canyon also has what the staff claim to be the world's only hydrolift, a vertical double-seated contraption that uses a large bucket of water as a counter-balance. Great for the kids, and me, although I did try the flying fox, and enjoyed it.
The centre is 15 minutes from SH1 and also serves as an information centre for the Rangitikei, as well as showcasing some beautiful scenery for those less keen to test their mettle. Our first night's accommodation was also on the same road. Tarata Lodge's Treehouse is a clean, modern, self- contained second-storey apartment with views over the river, the prehistoric looking cliffs and waterfalls, and an outdoor spa boasting the same views.
The hosts' daughter took us for a hairy ride down a steep hill track to the river in a four-wheel- drive buggy. There were lambs for the kids to feed and a novel golf attraction - an old mini in the middle of a paddock which you try to hit. Get it in three balls and a bottle of wine is the prize.
The lodge also offers trout fishing, possum hunting and river rafting with qualified instructors.
From here we travelled to Cairnmuir Cottage, just north of Mangaweka. The cottage is actually a self-contained five-bedroom Lockwood, with a cosy woodburner, books, toys and a homely feel.
It is perched on a ridge overlooking the Kawhatau Valley and Ruahine Ranges, a magnificent panorama with beautiful quality of light. Wendy and Peter Buchanan have been farming for many years and are the epitome of good Kiwi folk. Wendy's homemade muesli and preserves and other goodies stocked the kitchen, and she went out of her way to look after us, taking us for a quad-bike ride through an old railway tunnel on the property, and inviting us in for a wine with the family.
A great day-trip from Cairnmuir is the Waiouru Army Museum.
The final night of our trip was a luxurious one at Whakapapa's Chateau Tongariro.
The stately hotel was built in 1929, and has had a varied history since. Friendly Kiwi service adds the touch of informality needed to avoid stuffiness, and you would be hard pushed to find a more relaxing moment than lounging on the grand couches in front of the magnificent arched Ngauruhoe window having high tea.
A hot pool and cinema are free to guests and there are plenty of dining options nearby, meaning it is actually possible to stay there if you're not loaded. Before heading home we took a sightseeing ride up the chairlifts on Whakapapa's skifield to the rebuilt and refurbished Knoll Ridge cafe. Spectacular picture windows show how high up the mountain you are, and is a reminder of how small we are in contrast with nature.
- Kapiti Observer
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NEW Hip Hop Music
Beyonce Ft. Drake – Mine
Brand new music from Beyonce "Mine" Ft. Drake.. This is from Beyonce's self titled album "Beyonce"..
2 Chainz Ft. Lil Wayne – Twerk Season
Brand new music from 2 Chainz "Twerk Season" Ft. Lil Wayne. No word on which project this..
Chris Brown – Wildcat
Brand new music from Chris Brown "Wildcat". Produced by Drumma Boy. Wildcat (Prod. by Drumma Boy)..
Monday January 14th, 2008
Wednesday January 9th, 2008
Friday January 4th, 2008
Jagged Edge Feat. Bo Hagon, Snoop Dogg & Daz – Smoking While We Grind..
7 years ago | Listens: 1,579
Friday December 21st, 2007
Audio: Rick Ross Feat. R. Kelly & Chris Brown – Speedin' (Official Remix)..
7 years ago | Listens: 4,630
Thursday December 13th, 2007
Audio: Dj Whoo Kid & Lil' Kim – Mis-Education Of Lil' Kim (Remy Ma Diss)..
7 years ago | Listens: 816
Sunday December 9th, 2007
Audio: Gillie Da Kid Feat. Freeway & Peedie Crack – Get Down On Da Ground (Offical Remix)..
7 years ago | Listens: 2,014
Audio: Bow Wow & Omarion Feat. Cassidy & Soulja Boy – Girlfriend (Official Remix)..
7 years ago | Listens: 2,394


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C4 space season blasts off with 1.6m
Channel 4 beamed aboard 1.6m viewers on Wednesday for the first leg of its intergalactic season, Astronauts: Living In Space.
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Patriots Fold Up Round Table-Navy
The Patriots Fold Up Round Table-Navy is perfect for any outdoor activity area. The table is approximately 30x30x34 in size and folds flat for storage and easy transport. The New England Patriots logo is across the table surface.
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The Magnet Training Center is open and classes will resume as normal for Saturday, February 9th. Please travel safely and bundle up.
Magnet Theater shows for Saturday, February 9th are still a go as well! Have fun and again, please travel safe.
This Thursday Sept. 6th at 10pm marks the debut of The Magnet Theater's 8th Director's Series! This month, Neil McNamara directs Deep Dish, a long form improv show interspersed with character monologues, a staple of Chicago-style improvisation. In Chicago, McNamara has worked with Second City, The Annoyance, iO and Boom Chicago. Fresh to New York, McNamara is bringing a Chicago staple to the east coast, DEEP DISH!
Featuring Peter McNerney, Beth Newell, Nick Kanellis, Julia Hynes and Neil McNamara.
Every Thursday at 10pm in September! More Info HERE.
This Saturday, July 28th is a night you don't want to miss! All star casts of lady comedienne's take the Magnet stage to bring you breathtaking sketch, improv and poetry! For the incredibly cheap price of $10, you're in for the whole night! But who and what is it? Read on Noble woman….
7pm- Lady Liberty Improv: Phoebe Tyers, Alexis Lambright, Rachel Werbel, Caitlin Steitzer, Abby Holland, Chrissie Gruebel, Ingrid Ostby, Maggie Morris, Melissa Gordon, Lauren Olson, Christina Dabney, Jen Curran.
8pm- Lady Godiva Improv: Christina Gausas, Keisha Zollar, Kelly Buttermore, Ruby Marez, Emily Shapiro, Jen Sanders, Maddy Mako, Amber Nelson, Shannon Coffey, Danielia Donohue, Angela DeManti.
9pm- Kiss Punch Poem: Megan Gray, Kim Ferguson, Bianca Casusol, Sandra Struthers, Angela DeManti, Lisa Flanaghan, Alexis Lambright, Meghann Plunkett. (W/ All Female Poets).
10:30 pm- Lady Sketch Show!!! Directed by Beth Newell
Written by: Heather Seltzer, Gwen Mesco, Kate Chamuris, Kelly Donahue, Ali Fisher, Megan Meadows, Stephanie Streisand, Kaitlin Fontana.
Featuring: Heather Seltzer, Gretchen Poole, Ruby Marez, Robin Rothman, Gwen Mesco, Steph Garcia, Tamara Young, Megan Meadows, Jaclynn Larington, Hannah Chase, Kate Chamuris, Kristy Wesolowski, Ali Fisher, Stephanie Streisand, Jennifer Stokes, Danielle Tolley, Emily Shapiro, Beth Newell, Kaitlin Fontana, Phoebe Tyers.
Hosted by Megan Gray & Kim Ferguson! Don't miss this incredibly cheap and hilarious night! Get there at 7pm and stay til the afterparty!
Join us afterwards at Smithfield for an afterparty with special Lady Drinks!
Members of the Magnet Digital Media Engine at the Best of 48 Hour Film Festival – NYC. Their film "NANNY CAM" won Best Sound Design, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Audience Favorite and BEST PICTURE! Congrats Sean Taylor, Mike Bell, Danielle Tolley, Steph Garcia, George Gross, Jon Bander!


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text: World Foursquare Champions View full-size image < previous next > Is this photo a winner? "My group of friends and I all went to the World Foursquare Championships in Bridgeton, ME on February 28th of this year. We went as the all-star team: "The Mauve Avengers" (named after an episode of the cartoon series "Hey, Arnold!"). Our team competed and won the "Team Champion" trophy for best exemplifying skill and spirit in the world of foursquare. Without our t-shirts, we would have only been a nameless group of friends. With our shirts, we were "The Mauve Avengers": International Foursquare Champions!" - http://www.squarefour.org/node/759 - The_Mauve_Avengers (Mar 03, 2009) Share this photo on: Twitter Facebook Pinterest Similar Photos: sports | maine | gildan ultra cotton | occasion | world foursquare championships | bridgeton | orchid | foursquare | foursquare uniforms Feeling inspired? Visit the CustomInk Design Lab to start your own group order. Design Your Own


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I do not yet have an XC60. Had a 2000 V40 (bought new), drove for 11 years - sold. Want another...
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The Izalco Team is one of the top of the range road bikes from Focus which is built around theFocus Highmodule UD Carbon frame and features Focus's SSPS technology. FOCUS plays the leading role: from pros to amateur cyclists in all performance classes of the road cycling sport.
You're in luck! Black Friday & Cyber Monday Top Pick - 2014!This item has been picked as a 2014 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Top Product!
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