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Monday, December 11, 2017

Wilhelm, the Immortal

If a coward dies a thousand times, it must be this guy.

In explanation: "the Wilhelm Scream" is a sound effects clip of a man shrieking.  It was first used in western movies in the early 1950's.  At some point, foley artists-- who put together film sound effects-- made it a running gag and started using it all the time, in dozens, maybe hundreds of films.  This piece was created from one of many compilations available on YouTube.

About the bit: it sounds like the scream is on a loop and all the other sounds are tossed over it.  Not quite.  It's actually a bunch of clips played in sequence, and the screams are all synced to a click track-- which I left in for the rhythm.

Wilhelm, the Immortal

Friday, December 8, 2017

We Scold These Truths


Created from We Hold These Truths, a radio play by Norman Corwin.

New audio.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

News Channel Ate Amanda Knox


From 5 years ago.  I think it was up here for a while. 

News Channel Ate Amanda Knox

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Love Field, Nov 22, 1963

The man shrugging in perplexed confusion is a Secret Service agent at Dallas' Love Field on this day in 1963.  He's just been ordered off the President's car as it drives into downtown Dallas, leaving no protection.  "Hey!  Can someone give me a lift?"

Talk about hiding things in plain sight.  All those photos, we never noticed there wasn't an agent within 20 feet of the President when he was shot.  Not a one.

I wonder how Oswald worked that out.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Mel Blanc, hiccuping floorwalker

The talented Mr Blanc, relentlessly hiccuping his way through an amazing routine on Fibber McGee & Molly.  This is an exponential level of difficulty up from "rubber baby buggy bumpers." 

Hiccuping floorwalker

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T: Musical Dungeon

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T was a 1953 musical written by Dr Seuss.  The production does a great job realizing his cockeyed vision; I grew up on Cat in the Hat and all those books, and it pretty well captures that world, from the malleable poetry describing "Doh-Me-Doh duds" to the smug self-assurance of T's henchmen.

There's a trio of composers credited for the film, so I'm not sure who's responsible for this little pastiche.   It's a set piece for a dungeon full of non-piano-playing musicians, and sounds several familiar styles of mid-20th century showbiz composers, from the Bernsteins (Lennie & Elmer) to Spike Jones.  The strings at the end do a nice job conjuring up George Gershwin.

Musician Dungeon

Monday, October 16, 2017

Radio: The Last Word, for now

On the air, 24/7,
now and the foreseeable future, thanks to AutoDJ!  (beep, beepity boop)

Ok.  Probably going to keep it like this for a while.  I figure that a 15 hour playlist, changed every 5 days, will let you listen at the same time for 3 hours, and hear something different every day.  If the model's correct.  So I'll try to upload 15 fresh hours every 5 days and we'll see if this thing can work.  Keeping it fed should be interesting.

Next step-- the "Now Playing" widget!

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Variations on Le Mur

I use Audacity for editing audio, but after 15 years still know very little beyond the basics.  Apparently, there's this thing where you can lock it in continuous "play", and play back forward and reverse by scooting the cursor around. Not even sure it's supposed to happen.

 Here's what it did to Mr F Le Mur's "Andy of Bug Porn #10"

And here is a handy link to more Le Mur.

Update: It's an Audacity feature called "scrubbing" and it's found on Audacity 2.1.3, under "transport".
If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can speed or slow the playback.  Wild wacky stuff.


Wednesday, September 6, 2017

The line is up


The line feed, that is.  93 hours, repeating every 3 days and 21 hours, with new material trickling through it.  This concludes phase 1 of Cut-up Radio's launch.  In honor of the event, here's a little something.

The Action Signal Tape

Update:  well, if you're interested-- I tried putting it on the desktop computer a week ago and it's crashed 3 times.  We're back on the laptop now, where it lived for the first month.

Scaling back a little: not a 24/7 feed, more like a radio show, with me putting something together every day at about the same time.  The hours will be announced over there on the right.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Radio Update


There will continue to be tech work done while Cut-up Radio gets going.  I'll try to keep a stream up (as is my sacred duty).  Of some kind of audio.  24/7.  We're still in a testing and training period, though, for the foreseeable future.  Couple months.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Eckhart Tolle's tie-dyed shirt

Spontaneous cutup by YouTube:

Monday, August 14, 2017

Cassetteboy vs Theresa May



They're still at it.

link

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Radio Programming 101

Full-time stream going now.  Been on the air a week.  But it's still only a little baby internet radio station.  And its sleepy old parent is content to have it grow up in its own way, amidst all the sonic rubble.

Aiming for 162 hours in the program base; there's 168 hours in a week, so this cycle would repeat 6 hours earlier every week.  In other words, you could tune in every day at the same time for a month and listen for 6 hours before it repeated.

If I can replenish all 162 hours in that month, you'll never hear something played within 6 hours of its last play.  And no more than 4 plays per item.

A lofty goal.  About 5.75 new hours of programming every day.  Ok, that's probably not going to happen.  Unless I can do this for a living.  (Hmm.  Shouldn't that be, replacing a week of programming every week?  Not taking a week to replace a month.  Or a month to...dang it.  We need to model this one.)

Anyway, the next step is to find 123 more hours of programming.  Listen on, if you like it.  Going to be a lot of the same stuff for a while, until the library attains critical mass.

Monday, August 7, 2017

Radio Notes 2017.08.07

Hope to go to 24/7 streaming this week.  Looks like the best way for now is to have it running all the time here.  Like a 12-hour playlist that turns over new stuff every day.

Things you don't know when you start.  So we gotta get #2 fired up, and that'll be radio computer.  Working on that later this morning.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Cut-up Radio


will be commencing Friday evening netcasts in a week.
Don't say you haven't been warned.
More news later on this channel.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Over the Winter

or, how you start thinking after too much of the History Channel.

link

Monday, March 13, 2017

The Mahayana

31 seconds of new audio.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Mason video caps

Here's a few that were made by fast-fwd/reversing a videocassette, on a feed that was captured on a digital video recorder.  None have been edited-- didn't even touch the KPTV watermarks.

The first is where the masthead of this site comes from.  "Ruta's Dream".















"The Breakup"

 
"Homage to Escher"


"A Clumsy Pass"















"Segue Man"


"Stoned?  Us?"


Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Cassetteboy: Trump (Charlie Brooker's Wipe 2016)

Their bit on David Cameron is also referenced on this site.
Here's something else on YouTube.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

A Fib

(0:31) New audio.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Not even Texas remembers W

This is a photo from today's South Texas News story about the first President Bush.  His son (this guy) isn't mentioned in the story; there's no reason for his picture to be used.  It's not even captioned, like "former President's son".  We're clearly supposed to assume this is the Bush in the story.

Either they don't remember him in Texas anymore, or it means they gave up trying to tell everyone he kept us safe, and now they're hoping for simple oblivion for the man.  May it be so.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Perry Mason blooper

Watching Perry Mason yesterday, paused it and got this.


Don't know where that oddly-placed speck came from-- digital blank or analog blot (I didn't make it, or even intentionally pause the machine at the right place)-- but it seems to be the episode where Raymond Burr was accidentally shot in the back of the head by a clumsy cast member.  

The show went on hiatus for retooling-- there was some talk of "Hamilton Burger, District Attorney" coming to the airwaves-- but a little bullet through the noggin wasn't about to stop Raymond Burr, and he returned unharmed the next fall.  The summer replacement was "Agent 13, Man of Mystery", starring Dave Ketchum.


I do have some odd Mason screen caps around here somewhere...

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

In Defense of Anonymity: Cut-up Clothing

The Guardian has an article about how fashions are evolving to stump facial recognition software by overloading it with data-- which we audio types know as "noise", specifically, irrelevant signal.  Try a shirt made out of this stuff!




Maybe the Cubists saw something back there...



This would also confuse a cat.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

William S. Burroughs: Mr Bradley Mr Martin, hear us through the hole in thin air

** I don't know if this piece was ever transcribed;  I searched the Internet for quotes and nothing came up.  It originally appeared in Aspen magazine as a recording only.  The breaks and punctuation are mine, and hopefully reflect the author's intent.**

Mr Bradley Mr Martin hear us through the hole in thin air.  Thing police, all boardroom reports now are ended.  Fading out in _onolulu, _ew York, _aris, _ome, _oston.  The great wind, evolving turrets, towers, palaces.  Sound and image flakes fall.  His dogs that were his eyes, shut off, Mr Bradley, mister-- gone away.  Pulled the reverse switch.  Place no good, no bueno.  Turned off the Swedish river of Gothenburg, Saturday, March 17th, 1962, past time.  These colorless sheets are empty.  You never existed at all.

I smoke is all boy.  Goodbye to William.  Al hab.  Last twinges of a coffin posting this book where the awning flaps a distant thank you.  Explosion splits the boat.  SOS.  Five times SOS.  Hear this little time, five scars left the dawn.  Goodbye to Mr Martin, who never had courage to let go.

He heard your summons.  Time hiccups.  Last cigarette loud and clear.  Last flag fading.  Rings of Saturn in the morning sky, whatever remains could give no human contacts.  Front for the hot reward business.  Chinese youths sent the resistance vision to you tilting through pinball machine. Remember, I was the ship gives no flesh identity.  Lips fading.  Silence to say goodbye.

If you wanted a cup of tea with whatever remains, breadknife in the heart.  Fade quivering excuse for being.  Shadow American, look anyplace, empty new.  Our actors proffer the account.  Sheets are empty.

Many years ago, that breadknife in the war.  Inessential word from the past.  For I have known through faulty human equipment the vacant courage to let all messages in and out, to the mountain wind, loud and clear now.  Through faulty human equipment hustling myself; your stale overcoat not taking any dirty pictures.  Twisting hole in everybody, spilling out limestone john hamburger mary jackie bluenote.  Had enough movies.  No good, no bueno.

Yas, adios, meester.  I go home, having lost.  In sun I held the vacant courage to proffer the mountain wind.  And I can see the flesh words answer your summons, no more falling on all flesh.  Sheets are empty, the recordings remain.

Last human contact used as model for a bad move.  Other identities are a rubbish heap to life form A, better than shouts, no good no bueno.  Crime child, it's five times.  Had enough flak of absent world?

Child of Nova, the story over.  I fold distant fingers.  The Doctor on stage, hand falling.  Slow metal fires tap on the bloody sky.  I think now I go home.  Goodbye to William.  You and I fading.  Silence to say, you are yourself, Mr Bradley, Mr Martin, who never existed at all.  Silence to say goodbye.