tax break

I'm at work right now.  I do taxes for a living and it's kind of busy up through April 15.  Might post later tonight, but if I don't get back to it today, always remember...the something-something is, uh...I did have a question though-- has anyone else noticed that Windows seems to have eaten a bad update?  It used to be that when a cursor was blinking in a box, it meant the box was ready for input; like putting your zip code into the computer, you'd see that little blinking vertical line, and know you could start typing.

But in like the last 2 or 3 months, Windows seems to have switched over to showing blinking cursors. and the box isn't open for data-- you start typing and nothing happens.  If you have more than one application open, the other can actually be the one that's selected to work on, and the one you think you have, where the box is supposedly waiting for you to start typing, isn't the active application-- even though the cursor is sitting there, blinking, like it's ready. 

This is a new thing.  Windows didn't used to pretend that you could start entering data in applications that weren't ready for it.  I figure it's a bad update.  They should just junk Windows and go to a flat operating system.  Whatever that is.  (Sorry, tax thinking creeping in.)

Lyndon Lorenz: The Master Plan

(2:12)  Nice beat.

Link to the bit

and

a YouTube page with more bits.

Charles Keating: Come Join the Fun

(2:39) World-renowned Los Angeles news announcer George Putnam, on what has become a big, big business.

George?

Low Profile Production Music

First off,

weird radio production music of the 1960's, courtesy of WFMU:

"chevy"

which sounds like the music of Henry Mancini, arranged by a blender...


And musical salvage--

the opening titles for They Shoot Horses Don't They, with as much non-music cut out as I could.  Still a few artifacts in there.  The melody is "Easy Come, Easy Go," arranged by Johnny Green.

link

Firesign Theatre: Microorganism State Park

(10:19) Speaking of Mr Bretman and his cronies, here's a kind of cut and paste reader's play from their avant-garde religious radio program, Dear Friends.

link

Andre Hodeir: Jazz et Jazz

(2:59) 1960.

link

Here's how he did it, for those who want to try this at home:

Hodeir realized the work in three stages. 

During the first, he separately recorded a big band playing several composed passages and a rhythm section (bass and drums) playing along with a chord progression from the ensemble work. 

In the second stage, Hodeir transformed the recording of the big band passages using tape-editing techniques such as speed changes, tape reversal, filtering, and transposition (playing the tape upside down). He next added a rhythm section track, unchanged, to the electronically modified big band track. 

For the third stage, a piano player improvised “as indicated by the composer” along with the “composite tape background,” creating the final realization. 

The musique concrète treatment of the band included horns and drums in reverse, piano slowed-down and sped-up, chirping microphone taps, and a variety of comical percussive effects. The result was a carefully orchestrated crowd pleasure that could be performed live with a solo pianist exchanging passages with his or her mutated electronic doppelganger on tape.

- http://www.thomholmes.com/

The Bran Flakes: Bubbles

Our first track from today's eponymous offering is Turn the Channel, It's Another Commercial.

The entire album is available at the Internet Archive.

And for dessert, a 54-50 video.