Gamelan Girdles the Globe

If I could choose the circumstances of an alternative life I might very well choose to be born in Bali at a time before modern Western influences. Bali, where "we have no art – everything we do is art", perfected a sustainable agriculture centuries ago; the people satisfied all their material needs with only three or four hours of work a day, and used the remainder of their time for creative endeavors and interactions with family and friends. Among the extraordinary achievements of the Balinese is their music, one form of which is the gamelan orchestra. I embraced this music wholeheartedly upon first hearing, as have many others, including Western musicians whose compositions were influenced by the gamelan.

Here is an image of a gamelan orchestra. Every gamelan is a set of matched instruments, in tune and in tone with one another. There are a number of amateur ensembles in the U.S. and I wish to someday have the opportunity to play with one of them.

Source:

fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au

This is a classical presentation from Bali.

This is Armenian-American Alan Hovhannes' Koke No Niwa (Moss Garden) for clarinet, harp, and percussion.

This is Californian-American composer Lou Harrison's Main Bersama-Sama (Playing Together).

And this is the British progressive rock band King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 1.

Links and Miscellany – September 28 – One of Those Good News, Bad News Kind of Days

Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the 'pathetic' American media The Guardian (UK)

Iran Hacked US Navy Computers The cyberwars are well underway, and since the U.S. has declared the Internet a free-fire zone I don't think we can expect any nation to play nice.

In the 1960s, a team of GE engineers proposed a design for a single-person space escape pod called Man Out of Space Easiest (later changed to Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment), or MOOSE Obviously, the free market doesn't ensure the best products are made.

Parasitic filmmakers beg for handouts on Kickstarter to make third installment of failed Atlas Shrugged movies Similarly, the free market doesn't ensure that bad products go away.

The September 24, 2013 magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck the Baluchistan province of northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 100,000 homeless, created a bizarre-looking island in the Paddi Zirr (West Bay) near Gwadar, Pakistan.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory website

World’s biggest solar thermal power plant fired up in California Circular arrays of mirrors reflect sunlight to central towers, heating water to produce steam, which spins turbines and produces electricity.

© BrightSource Energy

Bond market algo-traders steal a march on competitors, get market-moving information from the Federal Reserve milliseconds early – leaks from the Fed's "lockup room" suspected. The financial sector is now 40% of the U.S. economy but is good for very little. In almost every instance, making money off of money is an abuse of We the People's currency, serves no public purpose, and makes the lives of ordinary citizens not a whit better.

31 Photos From the Golden Age of Airships, When Zeppelins Ruled the Sky (Gizmodo) From childhood I've loved airships almost as much as steam locomotives.

Super luxury "Seven Star" train unveiled in Japan Bringing the opulence of passenger airships to the rails.

Discover Thomas Jefferson’s Cut-and-Paste Version of the Bible, and Read the Curious Edition Online (Open Culture) You can, virtually, leaf through the well-used original here.

Your Daily Dose of Ecstasy

Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music that has manifested as a type of popular music centered in Pakistan but which has spread across Asia. It is exemplified by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who is widely considered to have been one of the best singers the human race has ever produced. Here's a little Nusrat to make your heart beam.

And courtesy of Daniel Ladinsky's powers of translation, here is a little Hafiz:

Venus Just Asked Me

Perhaps

For just one minute out of the day

It may be of value to torture yourself

With thoughts like,

"I should be doing

A hell of a lot more with my life than I am —

Cause I'm so damn talented."

But remember,

For just one minute out of the day.

With all the rest of your time,

It would be best

To try

Looking upon your self more as God does.

For He knows

Your true royal nature.

God is never confused

And can see Only Himself in you.

My dear,

Venus just leaned down and asked me

To tell you a secret, to confess

She's just a mirror who has been stealing

Your light and music for centuries.

She knows as does Hafiz,

You are the sole heir to

The King.

Finally, a fragment from Rainer Maria Rilke's Uncollected Poems:

Looking up from my book, from the close countable lines,

into the finished-full night outside:

how in starry measure my packed feelings scatter,

as though a bouquet of wildflowers

were being untied:

youth of the light ones and bending sway of the heavy ones

and the tender ones' hesitant curve—.

Everywhere joy in relation and nowhere any craving;

world in excess and earth sufficient.

Links and Miscellany – September 25 – AV Edition

Bang On A Can All-Stars perform Steve Reich live at Nantes Cité des Congrès July 26, 2012 (mp3, audience recording) Clapping Music, Cello Counterpoint, Piano Phase / Video Phase, Nagoya Guitars, New York Counterpoint, 2x5 / création française.

The Residents – Eyes Scream (1990) (video) "This irreverent pseudo-documentary about the band The Residents blends comedy with live clips, music videos, interviews and documentary footage. Spanning the years 1972 to 1990, and including clips from the recent album The King and Eye and fragments of the band's 'media mercenary' work, the program romps through established notions of pop culture, the music industry and the nature of musical invention, replacing them with the iconoclastic vision of The Residents. Director: John Sanborn. With: Penn & Teller. Producer: Debbie Lepsinger. Produced by The Cryptic Corporation."

The Residents – Twenty Twisted Questions (1972-1991) (video) "Twenty Twisted Questions is a 1992 Laserdisc by American avant-garde group 'The Residents'. It is a compilation of the band's history up to Freak Show, their then multimedia project."

Laurie Anderson – Aive From Off Center – Episode J (September 1, 1986) (video) "Late Show" from 'Home of the Brave' and "What Do You Mean We?"

From IMDB: "For generations, Mel Blanc was one of the most famous Hollywood voice actors with his myriad of voices for classic animated characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and scores of others. However, animation was only one of the fields where Blanc shone through in his long career. This film covers the life of this amazingly talented and big hearted actor, comedian and musician as he became one of the performing greats from the golden ages of American animation and radio through to the 1980s."

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Links and Miscellany – September 24

Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government One reason democracy is so difficult. In this study, the “Science Comprehension Thesis”, which identifies defects in the public’s knowledge and reasoning capacities as the source of such controversies was refuted, while the “Identity-protective Cognition Thesis”, which treats cultural conflict as disabling the faculties that members of the public use to make sense of decision-relevant science, was supported. When confronted with scientific data that are at odds with their political biases, even highly numerate persons reject the data and retain their biases.

Gun retailers strongly support expanded criteria for denying gun purchases, UC Davis survey finds "The survey is believed to be the first of its kind to gather the views of federally licensed firearms dealers and pawnbrokers on important social issues and the firearms business itself."

No detectable association between frequency of marijuana use and health or healthcare utilization "Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found frequency of marijuana use was not significantly associated with health services utilization or health status. These findings currently appear online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine."

Online time can hobble brain’s important work "Erik Fransén, whose research focuses on short-term memory and ways to treat diseased neurons, says that a brain exposed to a typical session of social media browsing can easily become hobbled by information overload. The result is that less information gets filed away in your memory."

The Pursuit of Hopefulness in Entertainment Media "Participants were assigned to one of three media groups - underdog narrative, comedy, and nature scenes - or a no-media control group. Those in the media groups were assigned to view one 5-minute video clip per day for five consecutive days. Following this period, those in the underdog narrative group felt more hopeful and reported greater motivation to pursue their own goals than those in other conditions. And, partially consistent with Prestin’s second hypothesis, the emotional experience of hope was durable, with hopefulness remaining at elevated levels up to three days after the final media exposure."

A new index of happiness based on migratory flows and not on subjective answers to surveys "The first places in this ranking are occupied by countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Israel, South Korea, Sweden, Canada and Australia. Bolivia, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, South Africa and China are at the bottom of the list."

Why humans are musical: Self-generated sounds of locomotion and ventilation and the evolution of human rhythmic abilities Maybe...

Covert operations: Your brain digitally remastered for clarity of thought Using fMRI biofeedback to retrain one's own brain.

Mysterious, beautiful, achingly poignant short from experimental filmmaker Nick Abrahams set to music by Icelandic ambient rockers Sigur Rós:

This three-part documentary on the life and work of Carl Jung is full of rich information, not least of which is the exposure of science and technology as the central myth of modern life, and its new religion.

Life Always Gives You Exactly What You Need, Exactly When You Need It

From one of my favorite guerrilla ontologists, Rob Brezsny:

WHAT IS PRONOIA?

OBJECTIVE: To explore the secrets of becoming a wildly disciplined, fiercely tender, ironically sincere, scrupulously curious, aggressively sensitive, blasphemously reverent, lyrically logical, lustfully compassionate Master of Rowdy Bliss. 

DEFINITION: Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia. It's the understanding that the universe is fundamentally friendly. It's a mode of training your senses and intellect so you're able to perceive the fact that life always gives you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it. 

HYPOTHESES: Evil is boring. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy. Joy is fascinating. Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is your birthright. Receptivity is a superpower. 

PROCEDURE: Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement and illumination. Assume that secret helpers are working behind the scenes to assist you in turning into the gorgeous masterpiece you were born to be. Join the conspiracy to shower all of creation with blessings. 

GUIDING QUESTION: "The secret of life," said sculptor Henry Moore to poet Donald Hall, "is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is — it must be something you cannot possibly do." What is that task for you? 

UNDIGNIFIED MEDITATIONS TO KEEP YOU HONEST: Brag about what you can't do and don't have. Confess profound secrets to people who aren't particularly interested. Pray for the success of your enemies while you're making love. Change your name every day for a thousand days. 

TO READ AND HEAR THE REST OF THIS PIECE, go here: http://bit.ly/xROwHE

Links and Miscellany – September 22

Points in Space Critically acclaimed collaboration for the screen by choreographer Merce Cunningham, composer John Cage, and filmmaker Elliot Caplan. If you have any affinity at all for modern dance, this is a must-see. And if you do not, this just may change your mind.

Philosophers at work Tenth graders in Madison, Wisconsin were asked to make drawings of a philosopher at work.

Antibacterial products fuel resistant bacteria in streams and rivers Corollary evidence for the hygiene theory of disease.

Antibiotic resistance threats in the US 2013 Centers for Disease Control (pdf) "...the potentially catastrophic consequences of inaction... Estimates vary but have ranged as high as $20 billion in excess direct healthcare costs, with additional costs to society for lost productivity as high as $35 billion a year... The use of antibiotics is the single most important factor leading to antibiotic resistance around the world... up to 50% of all the antibiotics prescribed for people are not needed or are not optimally effective as prescribed. Antibiotics are also commonly used in food animals to prevent, control, and treat disease, and to promote the growth of food-producing animals. The use of antibiotics for promoting growth is not necessary, and the practice should be phased out..."

US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina in 1961 "Using freedom of information, Schlosser discovered that at least 700 'significant' accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone."

Robert Heinlein Imagines the Year 2000 in 1949, and Gets it Mostly Wrong The perils of prognostication.

Isaac Asimov’s 1964 Predictions About What the World Will Look 50 Years Later — in 2014 On the other hand...

A recent discovery for me, this remarkable progressive rock concept album from 1971 by Serge Gainsbourg. As Josh, my partner in The Main Sequence, said, "I love the contrast between the cool acid rock and Gainsbourg's louche recitations." Some additional context here.

What they're sailing in the America's Cup this year. The very rich have some nice toys.