Uncertain Times

moving on...

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:51:00 +0000

Hi there.

This incarnation of Uncertain Times has passed on.

It will continue over here.

I will no longer be tracking subscribers, visitors or links, so the only way I'll know you're there is if you stop by and comment every once in a while. I'm happily dropping out of the blogos-flow while continuing to post things that I find interesting. No hurry, no pressure, no worry.

Before I go, I must give a big hug and a kiss on the cheek to all of you, visitors and blog-kin alike. You are the ones that have made this a memorable experience. I hope you all stay in touch.

See you on the other side.

Happy Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:20:00 +0000

I hope you all have been enjoying some lovely springtime weather. (Those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, of course.) I certainly have.

Due to a mild case of spring fever, a more pronounced case of internet burnout and a few pressing exigencies, Uncertain Times will be on Spring Break until May the 4th, 2009.

I might drop a few items over by the Tumblr in the meantime, so keep an eye out. (If you haven't been by to check out UTv.ii, now might be a good time to scan the archives - there's some good stuff buried in there.) Otherwise, I'll see you in a few weeks!

By the way, for those of you interested, Mr. Donald Roller Wilson dropped a comment on the Donald Roller Wilson knock-offs post from a few months back.

Ken Nordine - The Eye Is Never Filled (2005)

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:54:00 +0000

(UbuWeb)

This is a long play at 90+ minutes, but it's just as good to listen to. I've been enjoying it while goofing off around the house this morning.

previously in Uncertain Times

Uncertain Times v.ii tribute to Ken Nordine

Ken Nordine - The Eye Is Never Filled (2005) (DVD)

kennordine on YouTube

Ken Nordine's Word Jazz

The Christmas Lights - Show Your Teeth

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:23:00 +0000

(EggyWegganimation)

Song & Story By Kenny Tompkins
Art By clinton Jones
Animation By Clinton Jones & Kenny Tompkins

The Christmas Lights

via Comfort Music

Owl visitation

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:31:00 +0000

(nicmaz37)

Spaceweather.com:

In a remote area of New Mexico, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft operates an all-sky camera for nightly monitoring of meteors and fireballs. "The other night I caught a big one," he says. "An owl descended from the sky and landed on the clear dome of my fireball camera," explains Ashcraft. "It stayed for a few minutes and then flew away." This visitor was probably a Western Screech-Owl or a Great Horned Owl, two varieties common to New Mexico. Ornithologists may be able to pinpoint the species; the owl glances down during the video for a revealing self-portrait.

via Projectionist

Hammock - Mono No Aware

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:49:00 +0000

(David Altobelli)

Directed by David Altobelli

Hammock

Living the diurnal.... the weather has been lovely.

Enjoy your days.

The man who survived both atomic bombs

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:00:00 +0000

BBC - Man survived both atomic bombings:

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when a US plane dropped the first atomic bomb.

He suffered serious burns and spent a night there before returning to his home city of Nagasaki just before it was bombed on 9 August.

Is this good luck or bad luck?

Rare footage of Stanley Kubrick

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:39:00 +0000

From the Dutch television program, "Startdust".

Malcolm McDowell's anecdote is worth hanging out for.

(big view)

Rare footage of Sergei Prokofiev

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:12:00 +0000

bramley88:

The Russian translates thus:

Prokofiev is being asked: "Sergei Sergeevich, maybe you will tell our viewers about your work?"

He replies: "Well, right now I am working on a symphonic suite of waltzes, which will include three waltzes from Cinderella, two waltzes from the War and Peace, and one waltz from the movie score "Lermontov." [The War and Peace] has just been brilliantly produced in Leningrad, where the composer Cheshko (?) made an especially noteworthy appearance as a tenor, giving a superb performance in the role of Pierre Bezukhoff. Besides this suite, I am working on a sonata for violin and piano [no.1 in f minor], upon completion of which I will resume work on the sixth symphony, which I had started last year. I have just completed three suites from the Cinderella ballet and I am now turning the score over to copyists for writing the parts, so that most likely the suites will already be performed at the beginning of the fall season."

I liked the little spaz-montage at the end.

via Jessica Duchen's classical music blog

My favorite Röyksopp videos

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Many of you have probably already seen these videos, but thanks to RöyksoppTV, you can view them in much higher quality than the YouTube versions I've seen over the last few years. Enjoy.

Remind Me
directed by Ludovic Houplan & Hervé de Crécy
---

Poor Leno
directed by Sam Arthur
---

Eple
directed by ?
---

Sparks
directed by Thomas Hilland
---

From The Journeys Of Röyksopp…

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:20:00 +0000

(Röyksopp)

I love Röyksopp's music. Their new album Junior is out today. You can listen to it here.

Apparently, they will be releasing a second album later this year titled, Senior.

Röyksopp

Ansel Adams on visualization

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:53:00 +0000

(SilberStudios.Tv)

A rare, previously unreleased video of Ansel Adams provided by The Ansel Adams Gallery and Mark Silber. Sound advice from a master; short and sweet.

via lens culture

The Internet's librarian

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Brewster Kahle wants to create a free, online collection of human knowledge. It sounds impossibly idealistic—but he is making progress…

“For a man who has set himself a seemingly impossible mission, Brewster Kahle seems remarkably laid back. Relaxing in the black leather recliner that serves as his office chair, his stockinged feet wriggling with evident enthusiasm, the founder of the Internet Archive explains what has driven him for more than a decade. “We are trying to build Alexandria 2.0,” says Mr Kahle with a wide-eyed, boyish grin. Sure, and plenty of people are trying to abolish hunger, too.

It would be easy to dismiss Mr Kahle as an idealistic fruitcake, but for one thing: he has an impressive record when it comes to setting lofty goals and then lining up the people and technology needed to get the job done. “Brewster is a visionary who looks at things differently,” says Carole Moore, chief librarian at the University of Toronto. “He is able to imagine doing things that everyone else thinks are impossible. But then he does them.”

Mr Kahle is an unostentatious millionaire who does not “wear his money on clothes”, as one acquaintance graciously puts it. But behind his dishevelled demeanour is a skilled technologist, an ardent activist and a successful serial entrepreneur. Having founded and sold technology companies to AOL and Amazon, he has now devoted himself to building a non-profit digital archive of free materials—books, films, concerts and so on—to rival the legendary Alexandrian library of antiquity. This has brought him into conflict with Google, the giant internet company which is pursuing a similar goal, but in a rather different (and more commercially oriented) way…”

Economist.com - The Internet's librarian

via Roamin

Stereolab - Neon Beanbag

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:42:00 +0000

(beggars)

Stereolab

Evelyn Lambart & Norman McLaren - Begone Dull Care/Caprice en couleurs (1949)

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:51:00 +0000

(Dephaad)

NFB.ca Curator's comments:

As a teenager, McLaren became interested in Colour-Music, an art form in which moving patterns of coloured lights were projected. When he was at art school, McLaren and fellow student Stuart McAllister tried to create colour-music by painting abstractions directly onto 35 mm movie film. McAllister would later become a great editor of documentary films. McLaren was delighted with the experience but knew the results were primitive. Then, in London in 1936, he saw Len Lye’s revolutionary hand-painted-on-film Colour Box. It did not influence McLaren but it gave him the confidence to continue drawing directly on film. He had to wait ten years, however, before he would have access to a three-colour film printing stock, which would allow him to copy a multi-hued hand-painted original. And what an original it is! For me, it is hard to imagine a more satisfying jazz film – in this case, a marriage of hand-painted improvisations to the piano improvisations of a young Oscar Peterson.

hat tip to Brand Upon the Brain!

How Well Do You Know Rover?

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:44:00 +0000

They never did fully explain the nature of The Prisoner's mysterious balloon sentry, but it was certainly feared, respected, effective and quite capable of serving some serious pain.

Do you think you know Rover? Or would you like to know more? Then go take the quiz over at AMC's The Prisoner Blog. (I scored 3 out of 5, but I was just guessing.)

Hauschka - Morgenrot

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:08:00 +0000

(Jeff Desom)

film by Jeff Desom
music by Hauschka

John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson & Co. - Hackensack

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:05:00 +0000

(Delta_Mike)

John Coltrane and Stan Getz performing Thelonious Monk's "Hackensack" on German television in 1960. Accompanied by Oscar Peterson on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

via Bifurcated Rivets

Poet Passports

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Ezra Pound's passport

more poet passports in Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

Voyage to Inner Space

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:17:00 +0000

In 1680, physicist Giovanni Borelli attempts to recycle his own breathing air.

I assume that the date cited is the date of the print, as Borelli died in 1679 at the age of 71.

according to Wikipedia:

Borelli is also considered to be the first man to consider a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus along with his early submarine design. The exhaled gas was cooled by sea water after passing through copper tubing. The helmet was brass with a glass window and 0.6 m (2 ft) in diameter. The apparatus was never likely to be used or tested.

from the vast and fascinating NOAA Photo Library

via unpalombaro

Back and ready to rock!

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:56:00 +0000

It's good to get off the nets every once in a while. It's also good to be back. I missed you all.

image via colABLE DANGERrev
by way of GIF Anime

Hello out there....

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Real Life™ has left me way behind with my online pursuits and will continue to leave me there until after Savannah's mad St. Patrick's Day is over. (We have the second largest SPD celebration in the United States. It goes on for days and it's like a mini Mardi Gras.)

I'm going to try to sneak a few sessions in between, so hang in there with me. I hope to not completely disappear during the next week.

Fredo Viola - The Sad Song

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:13:00 +0000

(Fredo Viola)

music and video by Fredo Viola

via Comfort Music

LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:13:00 +0000

(DFArecords)

directed by Dougal Wilson

LCD Soundsystem

hat tip to Brand Upon The Brain!

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (live in Rome, 1980)

noreply@blogger.com (John M.) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:34:00 +0000

(petittheatresubversion)