History Lesson, With A Beat

I recently discovered this song through the Just Dance 2020 game that my daughter loves to play: Rasputin by Boney M.

Not only does it have a good beat and an upbeat melody, the moves are definitely culturally appropriate. But the part I love the most is that it takes a largely forgotten historical figure of great importance of his time, around the Russian Revolution, and tells his story very succinctly. It takes a great amount of talent to do that, and it's sad that Boney M. didn't get more recognition for this marvelous work.

The Story of The Star-Spangled Banner

Just about every American knows the words to the first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner, but do you know the story behind it?  I spent six months in Baltimore in 1976, so I was well acquainted with it, but this is still an inspirational video.

For Musical Masochists...

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was born on June 2, 1740.  In honor of his birthday, I present you with the two most painful pieces of music I have ever heard:

There are many, many recordings of Steve Reich's Music for Pieces of Wood, and I could have tortured you for hours with all of them.  They do sound pretty similar, though, leaving you with the question, is the ringing in your ears meant to be part of the music? What makes this video particularly excruciating is eliminating the human element, just seeing the pure geometry of the passing notes.

John Cage's Fontana Mix is quite a different beast.  He did not notate it in a traditional manner, so different performers can have radically different realizations.  What makes Max Neuhaus's interpretation so ear curdling is that his primary "instrument" was a speaker and microphone, which he manipulated the feedback between.

FreEBook: Bulletin of Primitive Technology

The second free publication I'm featuring is actually a magazine, not a book: Bulletin of Primitive Technology, first issue.  At 52 pages, though, it rivals much of what is being published today as e-books.  The only thing that makes it a magazine is the variety of articles.  Some are deeply philosophical, others are intensely practical.  The magazine is no longer being published, but the material has been collected into several books put out by the Society for Primitive Technology (which are not free).

Greenhouses without Glass

You may be familiar with the espalier pruning technique where trees are made to grow flat, but did you know that greenhouses had their origins from the same way of growing stuff in climates that were too cold: Fruit Walls.  Low-Tech Magazine has an in-depth article about this technology from the Renaissance.

Old School Warmth

The Wood Trekker has an in-depth discussion on Classic Backpacking Gear - Blankets.  Sometimes the old ways are better, but in the case of wool blankets in the period from 1880 to 1930, it really was a case of just doing the best they could with what they had.  That's still a good attitude to have, but it doesn't mean that we should blindly copy their results.

Ulysses's Gaze

The world's attention has been focused on Greece for many months, but as a kind of economic spectacle.  I would like to pay tribute to their culture with this opening to Ulysses's Gaze, a movie with one of the most beautiful soundtracks I have ever heard:

Prototype for The City

It turns out my idea for a Domed City in Tales of an Exiled Citizen is not so fanciful after all; one town in northern Vermont seriously tried to get it built.  You can read more about it in Doomed Dome: The Future That Never Was.