See you later, accelerator

In this brave new world, we sometimes have to go backwards to advance. Around the world, people are going back to experimenting in their own backyards, trying to create something from their own brains that can have a desired impact on the world.
 There's a heap of music here, an example of which is below. Instruments carved out of vegetables, music composed out of the standard sounds of Windows, sand music. It's all being done. Check out Blue Man Group, and the way the artists behind BMG encourage you to build your own instruments and experiment.

Diego Stocco composed a breath-taking melody by bowing twigs and shaking leaves on a tree as his instrument. The sounds used to make this piece of music were not modified in any way. The track was recorded using Pro Tool LE system.

Diego Stocco - Music From A Tree from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

Or maybe you want to go fast. I mean, really fast. Hacknmod offers some ideas on building a jet engine in your backyard. And Instructables offers a tutorial.

Or maybe you want to make yourself heard. But in this media-saturated world you need a new technique. How about Craftivism? (Craftivism is a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite.).

Everywhere you look, if you look deeply enough, people are changing the way the world works for them.There's amillion places to learn stuff--maybe we should all be taking more advantage of them.

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Mr Green, He's So Serene

Oh what can I say. One of the great pop songs written by Goffin and King and played by one of the great under-rated pop bands of the sixties; The Monkees.

Great production techniques, the song was popply, catchy and terribly subversive. Plus, it includes the Monkee-mobile!

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Julia Dales

Yeaaaaah Booooy! Two casual minutes in the back seat of a car with a cellphone--taking a break from reading Death of a Salesman--Julia lays down some beats that are good enough to get her into a wildcard spot at the Beatbox Battle World Championship in Berlin this weekend. That's top 20 worldwide, y'all.

To quote Karl, "anything humans can do, they'll do competitively," and Julia just takes us all to school. Again, I am amazed at what humans are capable of, because not only is Ms. Dales in the beatbox battle, but she's holding a 95% average down, sings, writes music and plays guitar, and is in the process of choosing the university at which she will pursue studies in global development and political science.
Back in Grade 9, she knocked out her friends and schoolmates:

Humans have the most unexpected talents and they come out in the most unexpected times and places--often during wars, emergencies, or other times of great stress. It is up to us as a culture, as a society, to find ways that everyone's talents get a chance to develop--without the war, emergency, or great stress. Do I really have to tell you why?

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Some photos

of mid-seventies David Bowie. It amazes me that these candid shots of the man are so similar to the on stage/screen/magazine shots that are so carefully scripted and honed.
The shots are taken by Geoff MacCormack who accompanied Bowie on the Ziggy, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs, and Young American tours. An intriguing document of a unique time.

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When It All Falls Apart

...put the pieces to use. Like sound-collagist Kumquat, who has created the fascinating "Redheaded Sasquatch For Jesus" (it's an MP3--not the most inventive I've ever heard, but certainly worth a listen).

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