Stark Effect

As all of our readerbase knows, H2RS loves noise and remixxed goodness. So fans and creators of the same are certain to enjoy Stark Effect.

Located on the most excellentMetaFilter, Stark Effect is certain to be a source of profound sound deployment enjoyment.

Link (via Metafilter).

Fraggle Rock: The Movie

According to all reports, Fraggle Rock is becoming a movie! For anyone out of the loop on this one, check here and here for a lesson or refresher. Fraggle Rock was a post-Muppets Jim Henson production withSid & Marty Krofft-quality weirdness but with more of an upbeat tone.

Who's involved? The Henson Company, Henson heirs (acclaimed puppeteers), and, to insure maximum weirdness, Ahmet Zappa! Plus, the Fraggles are journeying to "outer space." In other words, the world of humans.

(BTW, click on the image above to get a visual comparison of Fraggle Rock kind and homo sapiens. Insightful!)

Link.

White & Nerdy

Weird Al Yankovic goes Top 10 Billboard...and credits it to MySpace and YouTube!
Link (via Reddit).

Sun Ra's Batman album

This all makes so much sense to me now. Years ago when I had this record and played it over and over - even after it was scratched beyond recognition - I always wondered to myself, "Why does it sound like that?"

Years later, inevitably, I got into Sun Ra (and eventually wound up hanging out with trumpet player Eddie Gale for years).

Now it all makes sense.

Listen to the Mp3s, and see for yourselves.

Link (via Metafilter).

Wal-Mart vs. Iraq

The 2006 combined net worth of the Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart is barely under the 2006 Gross Domestic Product (GDP = GNP) of Iraq.

Wal-Mart family is 80 billion. Iraq is 89 billion.

(BTW 80 billion places Wal-Mart - yes, Wal-mart - way over and above the Arab United Emirates (71 billion), and about twice that of Kuwait (41 billion)

Is something wrong here? All of us here at H2RS think the question, "Who is the real enemy?," can now be replaced by "What is the real problem?".

Protein Synthesis

Stick A Magnetic Ribbon On Your SUV

Asylum Street Spankers to the rescue!

Link (via reddit).

The Silent Ballet

In case you have been paying more attention to the new sound of McDonald's rock that what is really happening in music, it is our profound pleasure (and relief) to bring your rockstarring attentions to the real real, presented here in The Silent Ballet's Top 50 Instrumental Albums of 2004.

"2004?" you say? Yes, because so ahead of the curve is music at the moment that if you missed out then and pick up the thread now, you're yet very much ahead of the rest of the pack.

How far ahead? Evolvedly so.

Link.

Grey Lodge

One of the best sites for supernatural, paranormal, and occult/alternate reality resources on the web today is Grey Lodge.

[Full disclosure: Okay, I have good reason to stoke them, they just stoked my most recent novel...Poker Without Cards.]

End of a Revolution

The message here is loud and clear:

"The pendulum has done swung."

Now bring on the next Jimmy Carter!

We need another Jimmy Carter to help us to heal!

Link (via reddit).

Everything is Beautiful

No suprises here, other than pristine heart-lifting newness.

Link (via caddis).

Jamie Foxx Pulls No Punches

Jamie Foxx, you're a Superstar, that's what you are. Thank you.

Link (via reddit).

Conference Bike

This deserves a Nobel Peace prize. Please, for the sake of good healthy fun-loving chuckling everywhere, you must see the video. Then get your own Conference Bike!

Link (via wreel).

28,000 Light Years, the Universe, and You

This is about space, which it turns out we have plenty of. How much is plenty?

Well, according to this source and this source and this source, our solar system is 28,000 lightyears from the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. That's twenty-eight thousand light years!

What's a light year? It's a year's worth of travel at 186,282 miles per second.

That's right 186,282 miles per second.

So, our own galaxy's center - our own one single galaxy in a universe of a possible 125 billion galaxies - when traveling at 186,282 miles per second is 28,000 years away from us.

Furthermore, all those stars you see in the sky at night? (Well, as long as you live in the countryside where the light pollution is minimal.) Those are all stars just in our galaxy. Even with the best telescope in the world, all we have ever been capable of seeing are two things: The stars of our own galaxy, and in the distance...only other galaxies. Excpet for other galaxies, we can't even see beyond our own galaxy.

In other words, we may look but but we won't touch.

The good news is as long as there's water on mars or nearby, we can live in space. (A force shield of variable capabilities will greatly help towards this end.) The bad news? But only as far as the immediate vicinity of our own solar system, and probably no further than the Main Asteroid Belt.

Space travel in our lifetime? Absolutely. But real travel beyond our own solar system? Sci-fi fantasies aside, not in this lifetime, and, bearing in mind the limitations of science, of technology, and of ordinary biology, quite possibly not ever.

RAW Emergency - Got $23.00?

Douglas Rushkoff reports in his blog:

I hope people I've inspired with my work would band together to help me out in my later years if I needed it. Which is at least part of the reason why I'm sending what I can to support cosmic thinking patriarch Robert Anton Wilson, whose infirmity and depleted finances have put him in the precarious position of not being able to meet next month's rent.

But right now, Bob is a human being in a rather painful fleshsuit, who needs our help. I refuse for the history books to say he died alone and destitute, for I want future generations to know we appreciated Robert Anton Wilson while he was alive.

Any donations can be made to Bob directly to the Paypal account olgaceline@gmail.com.
You can also send a check payable to Robert Anton Wilson to
Dennis Berry c/o Futique Trust
P.O. Box 3561
Santa Cruz, CA 95063.

What about sponsoring some badass fnord parties this weekend? Call up your friends, make a flyer, and then send the money via PayPal. Step up, Discordians. RAW needs you. After all, to paraphrase the Man himself, without You there is no Him.

Link (via boingboing).

Irony's Demise - Parent criticizes book 'Fahrenheit 451'

If there is any question as to the utter uselessness of irony in today's world, it is our pleasure to draw your attention to this story.

Link.

How Modern Recording Has Ruined Music

For the record, in case their was ever any doubt...

XL Recording Studio Guide 2006
Everything Louder Than Everything Else
Have the loudness wars reached their final battle?
By Joe Gross
Monday, October 02, 2006

In August, an open letter from a music industry executive on the state of commercial compact disc mastering and manufacturing was sent to an industry tip sheet/e-mail list run by a music pundit named Bob Lefsetz.

The letter was written by Angelo Montrone, a vice president for A&R (the folks who scout and sign music acts) for One Haven Music, a Sony Music company.

"There's something . . . sinister in audio that is causing our listeners fatigue and even pain while trying to enjoy their favorite music. It has been propagated by A&R departments for the last eight years: The complete abuse of compression in mastering (forced on the mastering engineers against their will and better judgment)."

This compression thing has been a topic of discussion among audiophiles and music fans for nearly a decade. But hearing a music industry executive cop to it was pretty unusual.

The letter was almost immediately reprinted online in audio discussion forums.

"The mistaken belief that a 'super loud' record will sound better and magically turn a song into a hit has caused most major label releases in the past eight years to be an aural assault on the listener," Montrone's letter continued. "Have you ever heard one of those test tones on TV when the station is off the air? Notice how it becomes painfully annoying in a very short time? That's essentially what you do to a song when you super compress it. You eliminate all dynamics." more...

(via reddit).

My friend Carney...

...has certainly made himself felt on Warren Ellis' myspace page.




(I've showcased his previous work here.)