Lammer

tuneage: Hugo Martin - “Avril 14th” (Aphex Twin cover)

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:46:11 -0400

tuneage:

Hugo Martin - “Avril 14th” (Aphex Twin cover)

tothemaxxx: Sidi Toure plays in the streets of Bamako, Mali.

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:44:29 -0400

tothemaxxx:

Sidi Toure plays in the streets of Bamako, Mali.

I’m throwing a rooftop party on Friday, September 12th,...

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:19:00 -0400

I’m throwing a rooftop party on Friday, September 12th, 2008 with my friend Noam. More info here.

We threw the same party last year.

The Grateful Dead on Wikipedia

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:32:00 -0400

While sick in bed last night I was compelled to look up the Grateful Dead on Wikipedia on my iPhone.

Interesting facts gleaned:

Wall of Sound

The Wall of Sound was an enormous sound system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead.^[46]^[47] The band was never satisfied with the house system anywhere they played, so in their early days, soundman Owsley “Bear” Stanley designed a public-address (PA) and monitor system for them. Stanley’s sound systems were delicate and finicky, and frequently brought shows to a halt with technical breakdowns. After Stanley went to jail for manufacturing LSD in 1970, the group briefly used house PAs, but found them to be even less reliable than those built by their former soundman. In 1971, the band purchased their first solid-state sound system from Alembic Inc Studios. Because of this, Alembic would play an integral role in the research, development, and production of the Wall of Sound. The band also welcomed Dan Healy into the fold on a permanent basis that year. Healy, considered to be a superior engineer to Stanley, would mix the Grateful Dead’s live sound until 1993.

The Wall of Sound fulfilled the band’s desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system. After Stanley got out of prison in late 1972, he, Dan Healy and Mark Raizene of the Grateful Dead’s sound crew, in collaboration with Ron Wickersham, Rick Turner, and John Curl of Alembic combined eleven separate sound systems in an effort to deliver high-quality sound to audiences. Vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and piano each had their own channel and set of speakers. Phil Lesh’s bass was piped through a quadraphonic encoder that sent signals from each of the four strings to its own channel and set of speakers. Another channel amplified the bass drum, and two more channels carried the snares, tom-toms, and cymbals. Because each speaker carried just one instrument or vocalist, the sound was exceptionally clear and free of intermodulation distortion.

Moreover, the Dead’s Wall of Sound acted as its own monitor system, and it was therefore assembled behind the band so the members could hear exactly what their audience was hearing. Because of this, Stanley and Alembic designed a special microphone system to prevent feedback. This placed matched pairs of condenser microphones spaced 60 mm apart and run out-of-phase. The vocalist sang into the top microphone, and the lower mic picked up whatever other sound was present in the stage environment. The signals were summed, the sound that was common to both mics (the sound from the Wall) was cancelled, and only the vocals were amplified.

The Wall of Sound consisted of 89 300-watt solid-state and three 350-watt vacuum-tube amplifiers generating a total of 26,400 watts RMS of audio power. This systems projected high quality playback at six hundred feet with an acceptable sound projected for a quarter mile, at which point wind interference degraded it. The Wall of Sound was the largest portable sound system ever built (although “portable” is a relative term).^{[citation needed]} The Grateful Dead had two stages for the Wall of Sound. One would go ahead to the next city and begin being set up as soon as possible while the other was being used; the other would then “leapfrog” to the next show. Four semi-trailers and 21 crew members were required to haul and set up the 75-ton Wall.

Though the initial framework and a rudimentary form of the system was unveiled in February 1973 (ominously, every speaker tweeter blew as the band began their first number), the Grateful Dead did not begin to tour with the full system until a year later in 1974. The Wall of Sound was very efficient for its day, but it suffered from other drawbacks besides its sheer size. Synthesist Ned Lagin, who toured with the group throughout much of 1974, never received his own dedicated input into the system, and was forced to use the vocal subsystem. Because this was often switched to the vocal mikes, many of Lagin’s parts were lost in the mix. The Wall’s quadraphonic format never translated well to soundboard tapes made during the period, as the sound was compressed into an unnatural stereo format and suffers from a pronounced tinniness.

The rising cost of fuel and personnel, as well as friction among many of the newer crew members (and associated hangers-on), contributed to the band’s 1974 “retirement.” The Wall of Sound was disassembled, and when the Dead began touring again in 1976, it was with a more logistically practical sound system.

Dancing bears: A series of stylized dancing bears was drawn by Bob Thomas as part of the back cover for the album History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear’s Choice).^[52] The bear is a reference to Owsley “Bear” Stanley, who recorded and produced the album. Bear himself wrote, “… the bears on the album cover are not really ‘dancing’. I don’t know why people think they are, their positions are quite obviously those of a high-stepping march.”

Choosing a name

The name Grateful Dead was chosen from a dictionary. According to Phil Lesh, in his biography (pp. 62), “…Jer[ry Garcia] picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary…[and]…In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, ‘Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?’” The definition there was “the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial.”

(Jerry Garcia)

At age four,^[17]^[18] Garcia experienced the amputation of two-thirds of his right middle finger.^[19]^[20] While vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Garcia was given the chore of steadying wood while his elder brother chopped, when he inadvertently put his finger in the way of the falling axe.^[20] Garcia’s father drove him, after his mother wrapped his hand in a towel, over thirty miles away to the nearest hospital.^[19] A few weeks later, Garcia, who immediately after the accident never looked at his finger, was surprised to discover that a majority of his finger was missing when the bandage he was wearing came off during a bath.^[21] Garcia later confided that he often used it to his advantage in his youth, showing it off to other children in his neighborhood.

Garcia had several traumatic or tragic events occur during his youth. Less than a year after losing a segment of his finger, his father died. While on vacation with his family near Arcata in Northern California in 1947, his father went fly-fishing in the Trinity River, part of the Six Rivers National Forest.^[22] His father, not long after entering, slipped on a rock underfoot, plunging into the deep rapids of the river. The incident was witnessed by a group of boys who immediately sought help, beckoning a pair of nearby fishermen. By the time they pulled Jose from the water, he had already drowned. Garcia later claimed to have seen his father fall into the river, but Dennis McNally, author of the book A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, asserts that he did not, instead forming the memory from hearing the story repeated many times.^[11] Blair Jackson, who wrote the biography Garcia: An American Life, lends weight to McNally’s claim, citing that the newspaper article describing Jose’s death made no mention of Garcia being at the scene—it even misidentified him as his parents’ daughter.^[22]

—-

In the summer of 1957, Garcia began smoking cigarettes and was introduced to marijuana.^[27]^[28] Garcia would later reminisce about the first time he smoked marijuana: “Me and a friend of mine went up into the hills with two joints, the San Francisco foothills, and smoked these joints and just got so high and laughed and roared and went skipping down the streets doing funny things and just having a helluva time.”^[15]

—-

Precipitated by an unhealthy weight, bad eating habits, and drug use, Garcia collapsed into a diabetic coma in 1986, waking up five days later.^[3]^[4] Garcia later spoke about this period of unconsciousness as surreal: “Well, I had some very weird experiences. My main experience was one of furious activity and tremendous struggle in a sort of futuristic, space-ship vehicle with insectoid presences. After I came out of my coma, I had this image of myself as these little hunks of protoplasm that were stuck together kind of like stamps with perforations between them that you could snap off.”^[16]

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:28:47 -0400

Photo

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:13:30 -0400

Ana Rodrigez

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:13:05 -0400

Ana Rodrigez

Only $3 million? C’mon, rich people of America.

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:11:24 -0400

Only $3 million? C’mon, rich people of America.

claytoncubitt: Werner von Braun describes the possibility of...

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:26:10 -0400

claytoncubitt:

Werner von Braun describes the possibility of manned orbital rocket flight in this 1955 (pre-Sputnik) Disney film. Features footage of John Stapp’s rocket sled testing.

Dennis Wilson - River Song (from Pacific Ocean Blue, 1977)

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:09:26 -0400

Dennis Wilson - River Song (from Pacific Ocean Blue, 1977)

claytoncubitt: Unknown

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:00:51 -0400

claytoncubitt:

Unknown

"To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee Sir: I got your letter and was glad..."

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:53:07 -0400

“

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter and was glad to find you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Col. Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again and see Miss mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville hospital, but one of the neighbors told me Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here; I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks here call her Mrs. Anderson), and the children, Milly, Jane and Grundy, go to school and are learning well; the teacher says grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday- School, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated; sometimes we overhear others saying, “The colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks, but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Col. Anderson. Many darkies would have been proud, as I used to was, to call you master. Now, if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free- papers in 1864 from the Provost- Marshal- General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you are sincerely disposed to treat us justly and kindly- - and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty- two years and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages has been kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, esq, Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night, but in Tennessee there was never any pay day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up and both good- looking girls. You know how it was with Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve and die if it comes to that than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood, the great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits. P.S. — Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson

”

- Jourdon Andersen, ex-slave.

Letter for former slave master declining invitation to return to plantation in Tennessee.

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865

Robert Hunter - Box of Rain (from Box of Rain, 1990)

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:32:41 -0400

Robert Hunter - Box of Rain (from Box of Rain, 1990)

I-95

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:59:14 -0400

I-95

Buckminster Fuller - Wichita House

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:48:05 -0400

Buckminster Fuller - Wichita House

DJ/Rupture’s Cumbia Mix for the Fader

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:07:28 -0400

DJ/Rupture’s Cumbia Mix for the Fader

Papa Susso & Tamba Suso - ‘Ceddo’ via African...

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:25:05 -0400

Papa Susso & Tamba Suso - ‘Ceddo’

via African Music Treasures

Aaron Romine - “Olivia and Nicholas”

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:03:00 -0400

Aaron Romine - “Olivia and Nicholas”

Aaron Romine - “Valentine, Vandee” (via...

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:00:25 -0400

Aaron Romine - “Valentine, Vandee”

(via www.kravetswehbygallery.com)

John Phillips - April Anne (from The Wolf-King of L.A.)

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:49:00 -0400

John Phillips - April Anne (from The Wolf-King of L.A.)