28
May
May
author: Brad category: Me
Working on some photoshopping projects with the kids at school and I came up with this. It’s a bit creepy, no?
2
25
May
May
author: Brad category: Stuff
Well, NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander has set down safely on the red planet and has sent back its first pictures.
I’m sure that for many people out there this seems a bit humdrum. “Look, a picture of some dirt and rocks….” But it’s so much more than that. There is plenty of evidence for a large amount of water underground at the Martian poles and this lander will be the first one to actually dig down beneath the soil.
It’s also a big deal since the last probe that was sent here crash landed in December of 1999. So hopes and tensions were both high. NASA went so far as to call the online “trailer” for the landing “Seven Minutes of Terror”, referring to the anxiety of the folks at mission control more than anything.
The lander’s mission is supposed to last about 90 days or so, when the sun will set for the winter at the pole and the Phoenix will be encased in frozen carbon dioxide. Between now and then there should be some very interesting science.
Follow the mission at NASA’s Phoenix site.
06
May
May
author: Brad category: Uncategorized
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One of my favorite ambient artists of recent years is Altus (the alter ego of one Mike Carss). He has been putting out some amazingly arranged and produced ambient music–all of it free–for several years now.
Rapid Eye Movements is somewhat darker than many of his releases, but to my hearing it still has a very warm and inviting core. If it is an invitation to sleep and to dream, it contains in it the possibility of confronting the darkness of the psyche, of wandering down unknown pathways. But at the same time, it radiates a certain subtle sense of calm amidst the trepidation.
However, sleep is like that. One of my favorite quotes about sleep comes from former Bauhaus singer, Peter Murphy in his son, Shy:
Sleep is the daily end of life
A small exercise in death
When we go to sleep we enter into a void. A void, as the Buddhists say, is merely empty, a fact which is not good or bad. It is our approach to death that makes it bad, our inability to accept the unknown. So there is a sense of the ominous. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can feel warm and safe in the envelopment of the night.
This album seems to embody some of that for me. There is no doubt that there is something fearful and ominous in the music. Part II, especially begins with what could be footsteps, or the sound of our heart beating with fear, or Tolkien’s “drums in the deep”. But they can also be the simple rhythm of the clock, beating out time, measuring the simple passage of the present moment. The rhythm gives way to subtle shifting chords that hint at discord but offer warmth as well. It’s the path we all tread.
I’m not sure why I find more emotional resonance in this album than in some of Altus’ other works. Perhaps it’s that I am ever intrigued by themes of dichotomy and transcendence. But I have found myself really exploring this album more than previous releases, letting it work as more than background. And I believe it’s because Altus has crafted a piece of music that points to some deeper truths.
Listen to the album above and download it (FREE and legal) at the Rain netlabel.
