GussetBLOG

MP3 Friday

2010-01-29T10:08:00.002Z

Quiet week. Have been away on work.
The new Braindance forum, which Pidgin has set up in place of the now defunct Planet Mu board, has hit the ground running with a weekly BrainPodDanceCast series. The first two are available here, including track listings. [~140MB each]

Pete says:
"A new Skip to the End has appeared at www.thejuxtaposition.co.uk. It's a bit SAD in places, but give it a go see what you think."
[Tracklisting and 58MB MP3 on page]

MP3 Friday

2010-01-22T14:53:00.004Z

There's a live video collection from Alt Vault experimental improvised noise/electronica nights here on Vimeo. Including yours truly at Mr Wolfs/The Junction last November. The visuals are all mine too btw.

Gusset from non verbal on Vimeo.

GOTO 10

2010-01-21T20:47:00.002Z

/mode +v noise, the ever expanding ASCII based music platform

I saw the /mode +v noise installation by GOTO10 at the Arnolfini earlier today and loved it. Use the IRC link (remember that?) to listen in real time and influence the generative score.

It was made using Puredyne

Puredyne is aimed at creative people, looking for tools outside the standard. It provides the best experimental creative applications alongside a solid set of graphic, audio and video tools in a fast, minimal package. For everything from sound art to innovative filmmaking.

Puredyne is optimised for use in realtime audio and video processing. It distinguishes itself by offering a low latency kernel and the high responsiveness needed by artists working in this field.

Puredyne is based on Ubuntu and Debian Live. All packages provided by Puredyne can be used if you are running this flavour of GNU/Linux. Use, share, copy, modify, join the development team or fork :)

Software highlights

audio: puredata, supercollider, csound, chuck, ladspa plugins, ardour, audacity, ecasound, �
graphics: gimp, inkscape, fluxus, freej, processing + extras, imagemagick, gthumb, gphoto2, �
multimedia: mplayer, vlc, avidemux, kino, mencoder, transcode, luvcview, xawtv, recordmydesktop, �
streaming: icecast2, ices2, ffmpeg2theora, oggfwd, darkice, darksnow, gstreamer, dvswitch, �
network: firefox, links2, network-manager, wireless-tools, ssh, telnet, gftp, irssi, nfs, �
devel: gcc, make, patchutils, subversion, mercurial, bzr, emacs-goodies-el, java jdk, python, �

�and much more.

Anatoly Zenkov

2010-01-21T13:48:00.004Z

I don't usually write posts about fellow flickr users but something really caught me with Anatoly Zenkov's work. I'm not a fan of overly photoshopped work (it has it's place but it's just a tool) but this selection shows of processing and manipulating techniques, starting from good photography as a base and working on it in Processing / Flash / Java.

Persistent pyramids (via Anatoly Zenkov)
"Persistent Pyramids was made with flash application that I made specially for this project."

Chocolate Factory (via Anatoly Zenkov)
"That's it! First step in processing."

Mouse pointer track (via Anatoly Zenkov)
"Mouse pointer track after 3 hours of working in Photoshop. Black circles are pointer stops (not clicks)."
Jave applet code for the click tracker is in the comments.
[originally found via grom]

Reblogged with permission. Click through to see the original flickr pages and the rest of the stream. Go on, show some love.

Lost in the Shelves

2010-01-20T10:00:00.003Z

Great post over on the flickr blog of book and library related photos. Some of places I've posted before, some great new finds. Worth a look.

Black Swan Closed Again

2010-01-20T09:54:00.003Z

It's closed again. So this Saturday's gig is cancelled. =[

I may have posted this already but I've created a Save the Black Swan flickr group, to run alongside the facebook group.

MP3 Friday

2010-01-15T09:07:00.004Z

OverClockHeadZ say:
"Hello every one,
We are proud to release the first OverClockHeadZ coproduction release:
MechaKucha - Messiah?
Label: NO-TEK Records
Catalog#: NO-TEK 018
Format: Vinyl, 12"
Country: France
Released: 25 Dec 2009
Genre: Electronic
Style: Speedcore, Hardcore, Breakcore

Tracklist
A1 What I'm Searching For 4:20
A2 Kiss Me I'm A Sociopath 2:14
B1 Making Blue Screen 4:00
B2 Flushdown 2:55
B3 Wesside Fucker 3:43

Credits
Artwork By - Brilliant Beast & Neurobug
Notes
Coproduction No-tek Overclockheadz
Thanks to all friends everywhere, you know who you are! No name-dropping needed. Underground is a state of mind and a way of living, not a brand or whatever commercial bullshit, never forget this, cause life always give people what they deserve.

www.discogs.com/release/2053493

Extract from the rec: www.myspace.com/mech4kuch4 => track: Making blue screen

Now available from toolbox en 3 coloured versions:
black: http://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/11197/hardcore/No-Tek-18-Black/
red: http://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/11195/hardcore/No-Tek-18-Red/
brown: http://www.toolboxrecords.com/en/product/11196/hardcore/No-Tek-18-Brown/

Thanks for your attention

Have a nice day.

D-phaz"

_____

NIN say (or said, as I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago):
"Our 2008 Lights In The Sky tour was an ambitious multimedia production on a scale well beyond anything we'd ever attempted before. Everyone involved was extremely proud of how it came together, and we were devastated when, for a variety of reasons, we were unable to capture it professionally for a theatrical or commercial release. As a "plan B" of sorts, early last year we released a massive 405gb free download of raw HD footage captured at three different shows during the tour. The idea was to get the footage out in the wild and see what our notoriously enterprising fans could do with it. There were no rules. No strings attached. This was a gift, and an experiment, and for the past year we've watched it come to life in more ways than we could have ever imagined."

Another Version of the Truth: The Gift

"12 months,
a core team of dozens (with a network of thousands)
spanning 3 continents,
4 languages,
5 specialist teams,
countless sleepless nights...

It's finally here.

Filmed in Sacramento, Portland, and Victoria by the Nine Inch Nails team, edited and produced by their fans, The Gift is a stunning work in 1080p High Definition video with 5.1 Surround Sound, multi-language subtitles, and artistically-driven ethics."

_____

_____

the orb: dolly unit

"a crazy full-steam-ahead video for "dolly unit" from the new orb album "baghdad batteries"... filmed and photographed in battersea power station and beamish open air museum with a smattering of archive footage courtesy of the prelinger archives... imagine battersea power station having a restless dream... the album's available from http://www.maliciousdamage.biz/shop/ plus most other shops on cd & download"

_____

Simon Reynolds: on the Hardcore Continuum
"Illustrated by seminal tracks, revered journalist Simon Reynolds outlines his oft-quoted theory of a 'hardcore-continuum' that links all the UK's rapidly changing electronic music genres.
The talk at FACT was run in association with the Wire Magazine, and part of the Ding Dong exhibition."

_____

Handmade Electronic Music � Mini Book Review
Handmade Electronic Music - The Art of Hardware Hacking - Second Edition with DVD
by Nicolas Collins, reviewed by Leafcutter John
Includes example videos

Black Swan Update

2010-01-15T09:02:00.003Z

The legendary Black Swan has been temporarily closed down over Christmas and New Year but it has won the second licensing appeal!

This also means that the next Gusset gig IS BACK ON! Opening hours will be reduced to 3am as of 21 days from the hearing (14.01.10) but that will not affect this gig.

google.cn

2010-01-14T09:18:00.003Z

Forgot to pass this on a couple of days ago...

I guess its good news for those concerned about Google's presence in China. Seems things are getting worse rather than better (the official line was the hoped to improve the situation over time) so they are as good as giving up. Shame the goal of bringing information to the people wasn't reached and sad to see the extent the government (presumably) will go to to infringe human rights and prevent activism.

"Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.

"First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. ...

"Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. ...

"Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers."

Click through to read on.

Stop and Search and Stop

2010-01-13T09:21:00.001Z

European court condemns police misuse of stop and search
The Guardian reports on "Officers using Terrorism Act against citizens on 'a hunch' means serious risk of discrimination, say judges"

"The home secretary, Alan Johnson, app�ears to be in serious trouble over a ruling today by the European court of human rights against the unlawful police use of �counter-terrorism stop and search powers on peace protesters and photographers."

MP3 Friday

2010-01-08T07:00:00.000Z

I met Benji Bower last week. He plays the staggering collection of instruments below to provide his live one man soundtrack to Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves show at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol. Taken with permission. (The show is highly recommended (by me) btw although my nephew only enjoyed it "middle".)

From the programme:
"Benji is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is a founding member of Unforscene and UFS productions. Theatre credits include: Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Bristol Old Vic), Aesop's Fables, Stickman (Scamp Theatre), Strange Case (Bristol Old Vic / Pervasive Media), Ugly Duckling (Tobacco Factory), City of One, Jolity Farm (Myrtle Theatre), TV credits as composer include Colut of a Suicide Bomber (Channel 4), Cmonics Britannia, Rude Britain (BBC4), Blown Apart (BBC2). As Unforscene: Sulston Connection, Pacific Heights, New World Disorder (Kudos), Fingers and Thumbs (Tru Thoughts)."

Check out Unforscene and UFS Productions

The fascinating looking spiky thing to the right of the photo is a waterphone.

"The Waterphone was invented and is patented by Richard Waters (pat.#3896696). Each instrument is unique and made to order. Richard personally makes, tunes, signs and dates each Waterphone. The sound of the Waterphone has been compared to the haunting melodies of the Humpback Whale and voices from inner/outer space. Waterphones have been described as acoustic synthesizers, Waterharps, a musical �Aladdin's Lamp�, and �Whalephones�."

The ongoing competition page includes recordings of what people can do with it that are definitely worth listening to.

As I've recently bought a Gristleism I'm interested in this hack:
Gristleism modified with LFO pitch modulation and sample trigger
by ASMO
The official site even has a mods page.

9 Countries - Mashed ambiance, soundscaping across Asia. A Wax Audio production

"9 Countries was recorded on location in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Tibet, India, Egypt and Greece between October 2005 and March 2007 by Tom Compagnoni. What you hear has been entirely assembled from these field recordings, no additional samples used.
"Recorded, edited, mixed, re-mixed, mashed and mastered by Tom Compagnoni 2005-2009"

And last but not least... A new Bug Brand video:

Atheist Ireland

2010-01-05T10:49:00.003Z

In support of our athiest friends in Irland I am republishing the following in full from http://blasphemy.ie/2010/01/01/atheist-ireland-publishes-25-blasphemous-quotes/

From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a �25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.

Publication of 25 blasphemous quotes

In this context we now publish a list of 25 blasphemous quotes, which have previously been published by or uttered by or attributed to Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, James Kirkup, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O�Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, Bjork, Amanda Donohoe, George Carlin, Paul Woodfull, Jerry Springer the Opera, Tim Minchin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, PZ Myers, Ian O�Doherty, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O�Connor and Dermot Ahern.

Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalised, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement.

Campaign begins to repeal the Irish blasphemy law

We ask Fianna Fail and the Green Party to repeal their anachronistic blasphemy law, as part of the revision of the Defamation Act that is included within the Act. We ask them to hold a referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Irish Constitution.

We also ask all TDs and Senators to support a referendum to remove references to God from the Irish Constitution, including the clauses that prevent atheists from being appointed as President of Ireland or as a Judge without swearing a religious oath asking God to direct them in their work.

If you run a website, blog or other media publication, please feel free to republish this statement and the list of quotes yourself, in order to show your support for the campaign to repeal the Irish blasphemy law and to promote a rational, ethical, secular Ireland.

List of 25 Blasphemous Quotes Published by Atheist Ireland

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: �Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.� According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: �Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.� This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of �whoever is without sin cast the first stone�, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: �May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.� This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: �Also it has another name � The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies� But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy � he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty� What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.� Twain�s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: �Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who�s got religion�ll tell you if your sin�s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!�

6. Randy Newman, God�s Song, 1972: �And the Lord said: I burn down your cities � how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That�s why I love mankind.�

7. James Kirkup, The Love That Dares to Speak its Name, 1976: �While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness. I was alone with him� I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death�s final ejaculation.� This extract is from a poem that led to the last successful blasphemy prosecution in Britain, when Denis Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence after he published it in the now-defunct magazine Gay News. In 2002, a public reading of the poem, on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, failed to lead to any prosecution. In 2008, the British Parliament abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python�s Life of Brian, 1979: �Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.�

9. Rev Ian Paisley MEP to the Pope in the European Parliament, 1988: �I denounce you as the Antichrist.� Paisley�s website describes the Antichrist as being �a liar, the true son of the father of lies, the original liar from the beginning� he will imitate Christ, a diabolical imitation, Satan transformed into an angel of light, which will deceive the world.�

10. Conor Cruise O�Brien, 1989: �In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: �Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.� Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.�

11. Frank Zappa, 1989: �If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine � but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you�ve been bad or good � and cares about any of it � to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.�

12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: �The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas � uncertainty, progress, change � into crimes.� In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie�s novel The Satanic Verses.

13. Bjork, 1995: �I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men� I�ve been reading about reincarnation, and the Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren�t lesser beings, they�re just like us. So I say fuck the Buddhists.�

14. Amanda Donohoe on her role in the Ken Russell movie Lair of the White Worm, 1995: �Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can�t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages, and that persecution still goes on today all over the world.�

15. George Carlin, 1999: �Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there�s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever �til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He�s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can�t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!�

16. Paul Woodfull as Ding Dong Denny O�Reilly, The Ballad of Jaysus Christ, 2000: �He said me ma�s a virgin and sure no one disagreed, Cause they knew a lad who walks on water�s handy with his feet� Jaysus oh Jaysus, as cool as bleedin� ice, With all the scrubbers in Israel he could not be enticed, Jaysus oh Jaysus, it�s funny you never rode, Cause it�s you I do be shoutin� for each time I shoot me load.�

17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 2003: �Actually, I�m a bit gay.� In 2005, the Christian Institute tried to bring a prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer the Opera, but the UK courts refused to issue a summons.

18. Tim Minchin, Ten-foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins, 2005: �So you�re gonna live in paradise, With a ten-foot cock and a few hundred virgins, So you�re gonna sacrifice your life, For a shot at the greener grass, And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgment, He�s gonna kick my heathen ass.�

19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: �The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.� In 2007 Turkish publisher Erol Karaaslan was charged with the crime of insulting believers for publishing a Turkish translation of The God Delusion. He was acquitted in 2008, but another charge was brought in 2009. Karaaslan told the court that �it is a right to criticise religions and beliefs as part of the freedom of thought and expression.�

20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: �Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.� This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world�s largest Muslim body, said it was a �character assassination of the prophet Muhammad�. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that �the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.� Pakistan�s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that �anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence�. The European Commission said that �reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.�

21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007: �There is some question as to whether Islam is a separate religion at all� Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require� It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or �surrender� as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing-absolutely nothing-in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.�

22. PZ Myers, on the Roman Catholic communion host, 2008: �You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university� However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus�s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.�

23. Ian O�Doherty, 2009: �(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.�

24. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O�Connor, 2009: �Whether a person is atheist or any other, there is in fact in my view something not totally human if they leave out the transcendent� we call it God� I think that if you leave that out you are not fully human.� Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.

25. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: �They are blasphemous.� Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: �Given the Minister�s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,� and Minister Ahern replied: �Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.� So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.

Finally, as a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposing attempts by Islamic States to make defamation of religion a crime at UN level, 2009: �We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.� Just months after Minister Martin made this comment, his colleague Dermot Ahern introduced Ireland�s new blasphemy law.

MP3 New Year's Day

2010-01-01T15:50:00.000Z

"The Skip to the End review of the decade is now on line at www.thejuxtaposition.co.uk/skiptotheend.html [tracklist etc.]
It's a personal look back at the last 10 years which is tricky seeing as I have difficulty remembering what I did last week. Consequently there are some blatant ommissions (no Venetian Snares, Rotator, Dub Step or Ukuleles - you've probably had enough of them from previous casts) and it's 25% longer than normal.
Feel free to skip to the end of all the opinionated text that accompanies the track list.
Hope you enjoy it and have a Happy New Year.
Pete"
Direct link [70MB MP3]

Jon Rose plays 'The Fence' at the Viitasaari 'Time of Music' Festival
Embedded audio on that page ^

Yes, it really is someone playing a barbed wire fence like a violin. And it sounds amazing. See the Relative Violins page for some other fantastical instruments.

Spectra Liquid site says:
"HO HO HO! Christmas would be nothing without gifts. Therefore, we and our newly signed artist, Frank Riggio, decided to give you his second album, Anamorphose, for FREE! That's right, 14 tracks of cinematic, experimental electronica, ranging from nu-jazz to film score soundtrack atmospheres and detailed sound design patterns are now available in both mp3 and wav. Only a few months before Frank's first CD-release on Spectraliquid, he couldn't provide the label and his own fans with a better gift than this.

"Download it here, spread the word and prepare yourselves for his next album on Spectraliquid, expected to hit the stores in March 2010."
[WARNING: 800MB ZIP containing Wavs, MP3s and artwork]

IJO - 'Verbal Dance' EP BITPEP002DL [webpage with 50MB zip]
"Bit-Phalanx's veteran Acid-Jazz, Drill & Bass Lithuanian compiles six of his favourite unreleased tracks from 2005 - 2009 that demonstrate his harsher, mentalist tendencies."

The 12 Days of Christmas

2009-12-30T09:05:00.003Z

My nephew is staying with us at the moment and is keen to sign the 12 Days of Christmas, up the the appropriate day, to us each morning. In an effort to remember all of the lyrics, as my BBC micro singing version obviously didn't burn it in adequately during my childhood, I looked it up.

The first google hit, which I will not link to as I don't want to increase it's page ranking, was a Christian carols page that claimed religious symbolism to each of the days:

1 True Love refers to God
2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

This all sounds slightly dubious to me. A few hits down the ratings we find the wikipedia page. No more reliable a source but it does include the following text:

"The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes indicates there are suggestions that "the gifts have significance, as representing the food or sport for each month of the year. Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. Nevertheless, whatever the ultimate origin of the chant, it seems probable [that] the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty."^[2]

"A bit of modern folklore claims that the song's lyrics were written as a "catechism song" to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practicing Catholicism was discouraged in England (1558 until 1829). There is no substantive primary evidence supporting this claim, and no evidence that the claim is historical, or "anything but a fanciful modern day speculation."^[1]

"In fact, variations in lyrics provide evidence against the "catechism song" origin. For example, the four Gospels often are described as the "four calling birds," when in fact the phrase "calling birds" is a modern (probably 20th century) phonetic misunderstanding of "colly birds" (blackbirds).^{[original research?]}"

So, the song is probably irreverent but it's not entirely clear. I'd definitely take any religious claims with a large pinch of salt.

For a more surreal take on it the brilliant 12 Days themed Why Bother? interviews between Peter Cook and Chris Morris, which is a gem of improvised comedy. [It's available on CD and in text form.]

The Christ sketch is a great example:

Reading List 2009

2009-12-27T08:56:00.001Z

It's that time again:

Stuart Maconie - Pies and Prejudice (hangover from last year)
Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Slaughterhouse Five (again)
Lewis Carol - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Breakfast of Champions
Stuart Maconie - Cider with Roadies
Naomi Klein - Shock Doctrine
James R. Blandford - P.J. Harvey: Siren Rising
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Watchmen
Hunter S. Thompson - Fear & Loathing in Las Vagas
Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson - The Gods That Failed
Philip K. Dick - Radio Free Albemuth
Stephen Morris - In Search of Bristol
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
Frank Skinner - Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and the Queen of the Night
Geoff Manaugh - Bldgblog Book: Architectural Conjecture, Urban Speculation, Landscape Futures
Sun-Tzu - The Art of War
Kurt Vonnegut - Mother Night
William S. Burroughs - Junky
David Edmonds & John Eidinow - Bobby Fischer Goes To War
Ralph Steadman - Doodaaa: The Balletic Art of Gavin Twinge - A Triography
Gore Vidal - Myra Breckinridge
J.G. Ballard - Crash
Peter Cook - Tragically I Was an Only Twin (ed. William Cook)
Richard Beard - Becoming Drusilla: One Life, Two Friends, Three Genders

2008, 2007, 2006

Pope Down

2009-12-25T09:51:00.001Z

"Overzealous mentally-unstable worshipper" attacks Pope at Midnight Mass:

MP3 Christmas

2009-12-25T09:41:00.004Z

Merry Christmas y'all!

Tophee Cheesecake's Christmas Mash-Up Mix
"1-hour crazy Christmas mash-up medley !
It's mellow, it's heavy, it's straight, it's gay, it's cheerful, it's depressive - but mainly, it's Christmassy !^^
Download for free at http://www.topher.fr
Playlist to follow soon."
Direct link [126MB zip]

Little Boots - have yourself a merry little boots christmas funtimes

And as I'm posting Boots stuff here's the Trailer to the Laser Harp doc that you can see in the user area of Little Boots Music.co.uk:

MP3 Friday

2009-12-18T06:54:00.000Z

December Goatlab Radio:
"On this month�s Goatlab Radio Anakissed and 606 are joined by very special guest Danny Kushlick of the Transfom Drug Policy Foundation. TDPF is the UK�s leading centre of expertise on drug policy and law reform based here in Bristol. Danny founded Transform in 1997 and has since been an active voice for the regulation and control of drugs to promote sustainable health and wellbeing. As well as interesting debate we get to hear a selection of Danny�s favorite records from his personal collection."
Direct link [58MB MP3]

BLDG BLOG on Mudd Up!
"For those of you who have enjoyed the posts here about music, sound, noise, urban acoustics, glacial reverberatories, and their like, I will be on the radio tonight speaking about those very things, in conversation with DJ /rupture on his show Mudd Up!"

MIKE PARADINAS - In The Mix - EE 2nd Yr Anniversary Show
"Plenty of splendid music on offer this week + one fucking HUGE mix from Mike Paradinas. 65 minutes - 31 tracks .... go on, have a crack at the tracklist ;)
Includes an unreleased AFX track and a shit load of Planet Mu goodies coming out in 2010"
Direct link [218MB MP3]

Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" compressed over and over as an mp3 666 times

The Hijack Tape Pack Thread

Can - Silent Night

Jigsore vs Rutfuk

2009-12-14T11:09:00.001Z

Gusset VJ set for Alt.Vault back room @ the Black Swan, 23.01.10

I Am Lego

2009-12-13T09:39:00.002Z

Just discovered the Lego Express blog, also via pied-a-terre.

"Brick for Scirocco" is the name given to the Lego styled radiator designed by Marco Baxadonne.

Concrete Mushrooms

2009-12-13T09:29:00.002Z

Concrete Mushrooms looks at what Albania�s are doing with the the 750,000 concrete bunkers built in the cold war to protect again the West. The trailer is online now and the full documentary expected in Jan.
[via pied-a-terre]

Pledge Wall

2009-12-11T10:05:00.003Z

A message from Simon Singh:

�It has been 18 months since I was sued for libel after publishing my article on chiropractic. I am continuing to fight my case and am prepared to defend my article for another 18 months or more if necessary. The ongoing libel case has been distracting, draining and frustrating, but it has always been heartening to receive so much support, particularly from people who realise that English libel laws need to be reformed in order to allow robust discussion of matters of public interest. Over twenty thousand people signed the statement to Keep Libel Laws out of Science, but now we need you to sign up again and add your name to the new statement.

The new statement is necessary because the campaign for libel reform is stepping up a gear and will be working on much broader base. Sense About Science has joined forces with Index on Censorship and English PEN and their goal is to reach 100,000 or more signatories in order to help politicians appreciate the level of public support for libel reform. We have already met several leading figures from all three main parties and they have all showed signs of interest. Now, however, we need a final push in order to persuade them to commit to libel reform.

Finally, I would like to make three points. First, I will stress again - please take the time to reinforce your support for libel reform by signing up at www.libelreform.org. Second, please spread the word by blogging, twittering, Facebooking and emailing in order to encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Third, for those supporters who live overseas, please also add your name to the petition and encourage others to do the same; unfortunately and embarrassingly, English libel laws impact writers in the rest of the world, but now you can help change those laws by showing your support for libel reform. While I fight in my own libel battle, I hope that you will fight the bigger battle of libel reform.�

Signed. View the pledge wall.

MP3 Friday

2009-12-11T06:44:00.001Z

Goatlab Radio November 2009

"This month Dan Gusset and Parasite are joined by special guest Typowriter from Occational Cinema � an ongoing project which temporarily transforms neglected, reclaimed or hijacked spaces in Bristol for openair film nights. It's basicly a laptop, soundsystem and a truckload of short films with work from new and aspiring directors, classic television and music videos from the past 40 years, local and campaign news. A cinematic mixtape if you like. Anyone can do it, it's dead easy!"
[tracklisting, download [59MB MP3], stream, & sharing links on the website]

Barry Boxcutter says:
"Alright folks, I've uploaded a set recorded in the Motor Club in Seattle in September this year on the Kinnego myspace, you can get it here:
Kinnego Myspace
Thanks to everyone who made it to any of my gigs this year."
[64MB m4a]

X&trick - Rave Generation EP (BW005) [60MB RAR on Media Fire]

Colo[u]rs of Noise

2009-12-10T10:00:00.001Z

I came across the term �green noise� recently. White, Pink and Brown(ian) noise have strict mathematical definitions that I am well aware of, but there's a whole spectrum of other definitions out there, some more flexible than others. The wikipedia page is worth a read.

For example:

Blue noise seems to be a term used in graphics dithering,
A-weighted pink noise becomes Grey noise.
Bands of zero energy are centered about the frequencies of musical notes in whatever scale is of interest. Since all in-tune musical notes are eliminated, the remaining spectrum could be said to consist of sour, citrus, or "Orange" notes.
"Green noise is supposedly the background noise of the world. A really long term power spectrum averaged over several outdoor sites. Rather like pink noise with a hump added around 500 Hz."

I want to hear me some orange noise.
This green noise definition is interesting. I would have expected it to more closely resemble traffic noise (see fig below), but maybe that's because I live in a city. I�m going to look into this more as I survey noise levels all over the place anyway.

Normalized road traffic noise spectrum figure, from BS8233:1999

Stokes Croft Archaeology

2009-12-10T09:27:00.003Z

A team of homeless people are to begin excavating a derelict corner of Bristol which has been used by rough sleepers for more than 40 years.

"Turbo Island" in Stokes Croft is to be excavated in a project funded by the Council of British Archaeology.

"We have found evidence of homelessness in the form of drinking and drug taking paraphernalia such as ring pulls, needles and a syringe, which we are going to try and date because it doesn't look modern.

"We also found a turquoise imitation ring."

Smiler, 44, has just been re-housed in Dove Street after 20 years of homelessness, and has been helping the experts on the dig.

He said: "I am not sure how much homeless people will value the dig because they have a day to day existence � it's a shame but it's the way it is. But I do think it is worth doing because it teaches people how the homeless live.

"The most interesting thing I have found here today is a steri cup � an aluminium container people use to cook heroin. I was really surprised because people don't normally have them in Bristol."