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Dec 08 2011
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Science

Maybe We’re Not So Unique Afterall

This picture comes to you from Bangkok, Thailand.  Do Do the chimp and Aom the tiger are buds apparently!  For video of these two, scroll past my meandering thoughts that really add nothing to this incredible situation.

Is this chimp imitating something it saw the veterinarians/zookeepers around it doing or is this chimp knowingly providing care to the tiger cub?  I don’t know.  Regardless, this is an incredible picture that opens up my perspective about the world we live in.

Violent tendencies aside, we tend to pride ourselves as a species for our empathy and altruistic care for other animals.  On the common and seemingly less significant level,  we treasure the relationships we have with our pets.  I love my dog and I feel like she loves me!

It’s pretty remarkable to see an image the seems to show two other species sharing that sort of relationship with each other on their own.  That’s why pictures of cats hangin’ with dogs always get passed around the Internet.  It tickles us to think about.  This image of a monkey nursing a young animal that will grow up to be its natural predator takes it all to another level.

There are so many details to consider here!  The chimp is using a man-made bottle to nurse the tiger.  What proportion of this interaction is driven by some genuine maternal instinct and what is learned from or encourage by humans?  Could a dynamic like this exist in the wild?

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Nov 16 2011
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Space

Try not to let this blow your mind too hard: Timelapse footage of Earth from the International Space Station

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Aug 23 2011
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Music, My Music, Science

Music for the Sagan Series

I saw an open submission on reddit for music on the Sagan Series videos and was pretty psyched by the opportunity.  As you may have noticed from my other posts…I’m a big fan.  I wanted to act quickly so instead of writing and recording something totally new, I chopped up ‘The Hum’ and made it fit with the offered narrative.  I haven’t heard anything back yet so I’m getting increasingly pessimistic about my chances of getting the gig. :-(

So I thought I’d drop the recording here!

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Apr 12 2010
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Science, Space

Carl Sagan: The Pale Blue Dot

The spacecraft was a long way from home.

I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having.

It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos—but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last for decades to come.

So, here they are: a mosaic of squares laid down on top of the planets in a background smattering of more distant stars. Because of the reflection of sunlight off the spacecraft, the Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world; but it’s just an accident of geometry and optics. There is no sign of humans in this picture: not our reworking of the Earth’s surface; not our machines; not ourselves. From this vantage point, our obsession with nationalisms is nowhere in evidence. We are too small. On the scale of worlds, humans are inconsequential: a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal.

Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines; every hunter and forager; every hero and coward; every creator and destroyer of civilizations; every king and peasant, every young couple in love; every mother and father; hopeful child; inventor and explorer; every teacher of morals; every corrupt politician; every supreme leader; every superstar; every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings; how eager they are to kill one another; how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we’ve ever known.

The pale blue dot.

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Jan 02 2010
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My Music, Science

The Spankin’ New Source Audio Pro Series!

So, as you may know, Jeff and I spent a couple of weeks filming videos that go through all of the features on the new pedals from Source Audio.  Our first batch of videos!  Instructional videos, no less!!!

Let me tell you something.  Not coming across as a complete douche on video has proven to be the most epic challenge of my life.  That’s not true.  Well it kind of is.  Either way, I gave it my best.  I talked science, I played music, I tried not to smirk.

Anyway, these are the first of our videos at Source Audio and that makes me excited!  I threw some bass lines in there from some songs by The Help since I do have to make everything about me after all.

If you like what you see, you can order the pedal at the newly redesigned website for Source Audio at http://www.sourceaudio.net and stay tuned for more to come!

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Dec 17 2009
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Music, Science

God Plays Bass by Bill Cady

In the last years of my dads life, his journey for meaning and peace guided him towards Rinzai Zen Buddhism.  He was so proud when he became a priest, earning the name, Reverend Feng Huang or ‘The Phoenix That Flies On The Dragon’s Breath’.  He had earned the title, but all his life, the man had thoughts…

One of these thoughts that stuck with me was his notion that “God Plays Bass”.  Over and over again, he would bring this idea up.  We would share late night discussions over cigars and sambuca on our screened in porch where we could feel the seasons.  So many times, our talks came back to the Big Bang and to Genesis.  We would draw parallels between each creation story to find our enlightenment.  I remember the chills I felt when he observed that the text of Genesis asserts the existence of sound before all else.

“And God said let there be light”

When I moved on to college in Boston, this thread somehow followed me.  Nearly every time I strutted down Newbury Street with my bass in tow, I would be accosted by a beast of a man the Berklee students endearingly named “The Newbury Strangler”.  He would grab me by the shoulders and bellow the same phrase to me every…single…time:

ALL BASS PLAYERS ARE GOD!!

I would have shrugged him off as a mere amusement had he not plucked a deeply meaningful phrase right from my childhood and screamed it at me every time I saw him.  Where did he get that?  Why is he saying that to me?

After holding me in silence, the man’s hands would then drop to his sides and he would just laugh and walk away…

God Plays Bass

by Reverend Feng Huang, Bill Cady

Hard Bops flowing out a barrelhouse door
In the sun, wind and rain,
Two musicians chart and stride
Who’s that you say?
Well, You know the Devil with his guitar and fiddles
But looky here why thats Divineness on the Bass.

Y’all heard the tale how the Devil plays prestissimo
Always scattin’ an ballin’ up the beat
But, Gods Bass riffs are set in largo
Cuz cool jazz sounds so Phat
His low pulsing boogie just sits there in the groove

That Devil’s been tailgating at the Crossroads
‘Cuz old Robert Johnson was lookin’ to gig eternity
Guitarist dueling with the Devil a work song rhapsody
‘Til the Devil lost to scale in by a classical progeny

Now, God keeps groovin’ a Psalmody
Gut confidence in his center
His pizzicato dynamics-running bottoms up
Absent any vibrato digs that silence is still a note
Man, his Bass lines never can be beat

Nocturnes in dissonance jives primordial bars
Phrase and pitch all ripples no bars and measures true
A Bass note stuck in Forte an opening chord or two
Thaw-thump! Thaw-Thump! Thaw-Thump!
Comes the Tone Poem to the score

Perceive his milieu bass notes!
Three notes theme the movement just waiting on a score
Gods fundamental frequencies sets the tempo of each bar
Laying down some tracks each measure a light year long

Yes, were all here ‘cuz the Man was Jazzing up the deep
Gods bass lines are the cool school that created reality
Striding downbeats by the meter long before luminosity
Till his concerto prodigy blasted forth a Star

Nothing but a Bass line from time eternity
That music forms a triad of tertial harmonies
Just a chill in the loft scene now called the Holy Trinity
What started as a bass note gave life to you and me!

Yes, were talking creation
Life, the Universe and Everything!
Gods Cosmic Gigantic Bass Note,
Implanted in our nature a noble faculty

The voice came by virtue of the bass cliff
Scored in consonants no melody
So, scat the words if you haft to
As long as you keep in harmony

So, Stop jive talkin’ cause musics in our soul
Were all in this together the fiddler, you and me
Lets all make the connection to the Harmonics
We can swing in syncopation just remember to keep the code

Life is a song, says Yidl shmiddle
It’s coolness in our solos, cakewalks, forms and modes
Even dissonant running countermelody
Will return us to his groove
Cause

God Plays Bass

That’s right man
God Plays Bass

So whats you say?
God Plays Bass

Come on
Let me hear you say it
God Plays Bass

Ooooooh yeaaaaaaaa!

Thaw thump

Thaw thump

Thaw Thump

Thaw Thump

Thaw Thump

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Nov 24 2009
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Music, Science

Turning an Upright Bass Into a Sound Factory

I spend a lot of my time working with effects and finding new ways to manipulate my bass sound digitally but when it comes to recording, I really value taking time to produce organic sounds to create a sonic landscape (this is what we were really going for with ‘Animals‘.  A tip of the hat to Diego Stocco for what he’s done to his upright bass in this video!  Keep watching through to the end, because the sounds really start to come together to make a nice sonic texture.

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Nov 20 2009
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boston, Mainstream Culture, Music, Science, Uncategorized

The Books

Last night, I met with The Books for a private show they put on at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.  I came by for their sound check to meet and talk with them a bit about Source Audio’s Hot-Hand motion-controlled effect which seems to have caught their eye a bit.  Our plan is to experiment with the Hot-Hand on the cello, which is pretty exciting!  We won’t know until we try.  After all, the proof is in the pudding.

I stuck around for the show and as I expected, it was one of the most penetrating musical experiences of my life.  Their aleatoric approach to music and video communicates deep truths through displaying the startling alignments found in randomness and nature.  This, The Books’ method, bridges the gap between the worlds of fine art, music and science so well that it feels they have extracted the most crystalline, powerful aspects of each.

The communicating force of their music and video is entirely passed on material ranging from sound clips of Albert Einstein ruminating about Ghandi to passages from existential authors to found video footage from years spent rummaging through thrift stores.  When it’s all combined it becomes clear that the number one interest of The Books is you.  More specifically, the most deep, inner, personal part of your self.

It is my belief that they call themselves “The Books” because in the words of their tour manager, Brendon Downey, “they are a sonic library of all humanity”.  They are a musical representation of the world of knowledge contained on library shelves.  In placing dusty, ancient wisdom alongside sleek modern concepts, The Books are speaking to and of the lineage of art that began with the first word ever spoken and ends at the exhalation of your next breath.

The first link here is to some live footage of them and the second is a video straight off of their DVD.   There is plenty of content available online for you to explore.  If you really want to experience The Books, I recommend buying their CD or DVD of videos and spending time with them alone.  They may prove to be the launching pad and soundtrack to your endless exploration of your self.

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Sep 14 2009
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Science, Space

Why I love space: HUGE EXPLOSIONS

Check out this video/image sequence taken from the International Space Station as it flew 220 miles aboove the eruption of Sarychev Peak on the island of Matua.  Bad. ass.

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Aug 13 2009
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Music, Science, Space

Saturn: What the Shit is going on with you?

Yeah riiiiiiight in the midddle...there it is.

Yeah riiiiiiight in the midddle...there it is.

So there is a massive (15,000 mile wide) hexagon on the North Pole of Saturn that has just been straight kickin’ it for 15 years now.  Just…sittin’ there…  It’s not as spooky as it sounds, but it’s also a lot spookier than it sounds.

The hexagon is not a giant monolith, so you can get that out of your head right away.  Rather, it’s an atmospheric structure not too dissimilar from what appears on it’s south pole.  The only difference is…this is a hexagon.  What gets creepy about it is that there is an inexplicable hot spot (somewhere in the area of 70 Kelvin) at the center of the storm which is inferred by some to be the result of some sort of eruptive event on the surface.  An eruptive event that is emitting a relatively consistent tone, that is.  Powerful enough to cause a 15,000 mile wide geometrically shaped storm cloud.  Bad. Ass.

If you are a visual learner, check it out this lovely chart.

It seems that for some time, we have known about the impact that vibration can have on matter (see also: stuff) for centuries.  See this demonstration video. When subjected to strong enough tones, matter will align itself into a geometric pattern according to the frequency of that tone.  It’s really quite beautiful and haunting.

It is theorized by some that African tribes and Tibetan monks (separately, since they have never really been on speaking terms) experimented with this on the heads of their drums, thus birthing the study of cymatics.  More notably, however, the infamous Rosslyn Church features stone carvings of supposed vibrational symbols in it’s archways.  Scientists and musicians teamed up to determine the melody it was depicting which can be seen and heard in this video. Gnarly!

Here’s the kicker.  NASA has recorded these radio emissions coming from the poles of Saturn which supposedly have a more distinct tonality than anything they’ve observed in space before.  They’ve even dropped the tones down a few octaves to within human range and so that simpletons like you and I can hear them ourselves!  NASA…always thinking of the little people.

Click here for the recordings.

Click here for the NASA press release.

So that leaves us with the question…What the hell is going on????

I have no idea.

(thanks to Rick Carver for leading me to this story)

For even more info:  Check out this link

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