h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

New thread.
Consider that the housecleaning is done, the sloth sleeps in front of the fire, and the donuts are fresh from Joanna's this morning.

As always
Just heard that my friends aren't coming for dinner after all. One of them has just got over a nasty cold, and the doctor isn't sure whether he is still contagious or not! damn summer colds are the worst. So that means an early night for me after all! Bliss.

Hello, I must be going. (famous Groucho line).

Since I got to work at 8:30 today, and it is now 11:00, I think it is about time I got off of H2G2 and did some RL work! Catch you later.

Happy Babel, unexpected free time!
Garius, see you later when you get over this productivity fetish .

*Settles in with fresh cup of tea and Springie on her lap*
Let me tell you about summer colds...

Sorry to disappoint Lil, but my room is now a very ordinary room. Sorry.

What can you see out the window?
I think you should add in a soundproof music room for practise.

I can see...magnificent things

Oh yeah, I forgot about the soundproofing. Ho-hum, must be here somewhere.

Conversation 1011 bookmarked

I've got some art dicussion to have later, as I went out to the Hayward Gallery this afternoon. Also saw some live music (free due to the way the BBC is funded) in Covent Garden and bought some books. Quite a productive day off work really.

Hey Phil. Have y'all seen the latest Kliban cartoon which is at http://www.h2g2.com/A336007 ? I'll be interested to hear about the Hayward. The papers here are full of news about the new Tate that's about to open.

Mike, I'm envious. You must looking at the new forest, Moxon Wood. Affi created some really huge trees, and they're bound to attract strange wildlife.

*pets Mindspring*

Nice cartoon . Not sure if there's anything there to 'get'. A curse on subtle humour!

So, Moxon Wood is a reality then? Wow. I thought it was a myth...

"Myth? I am not even a mythster! I am a Count!"
"Not the..."
"Yes, -the- Count! Count Dudu-dudu-du-Duckula!"

Not now, Penfold.

If you think it's funny, then odds are good you 'get' it.

Oh! They're playing Barber's Adagio on the radio. This being Memorial Day, the public radio station (think BBC 3) has been doing all stuff about war, not just bloody marches, but some interesting stuff. But this is very sad. It was used in the movie Platoon.

Clouds rolling in. I think we're gonna have a thunderstorm.

If I bookmark this thread, what garuntee do I have that there won't be a new one when I log on tomorrow?

That cartoon is just spot on in my opinion. When I saw it yesterday I laughed out loud. Just the thought of the typical mime's invisible wall being between George and the ocean. It's got that thing (I just want to sit and wave my hands at this point) that makes it just so funny to look at and that I can't think of (if it's possible) to say why it's funny.

Barber's Adagio has recently been in the UK charts! William Orbit (he produced the last Madonna stuff) has had rereleased a cd called Pieces In A Modern Style, where he took stuff like the Adagio and played it on his sets of synths and other instruments. The chart hit was a dance/trance remix of it, and I know it's one of the tracks on a mix album from Perfecto (the original that it). Seems like quite a popular choice for a chill out tune

The Hayward's current exhibition is called Sonic Boom. It's a set of sound art pieces. Some are installations, others things like an old rotating speaker fed with two not quite identiacl frequencies. Certainly not quite your average afternoon at the gallery!

Thunderstorms, not seen a good one of those for ages

Irving!
I reckon we'll be here. Not much seems to be happening, and I'll have to log off anyway, if we have a thunderstorm. I hear you're getting record high temperatures in Arizona.

Kliban has somehow captured the moment before the moment. George is hard up against the visible wall, which means he has probably tested it, and is just now coming out of denial as we look at him. We're laughing at George and we're laughing at what Kliban has done with the concept of Inaccessibility... imho

Hmmm, something like that

More on the Sonic Boom thing as I remember it.
Unless you're into this sort of stuff, Brian Eno is probably the only name you'll have heard of. His piece is an instalation with a few slide projectors, doing very slow disolves from slide to slide and Eno's ambient music playing in the background. I could have sat there for hours just letting it all wash over me.
There were a couple of similar pieces to this, one with a darkened room with projections onto three walls and music background. The floor was glass covered, so reflected the projections. Under the glass were sheets of black paper with notes from the artist which could just abput be read in the light of the projectors.

In 1970 I was a communard at the Birmingham Arts Lab when Aston University and the Lab did an interactive exhibition, one of the first. I was trying to remember the bloke's name all through your first post, and it's only just come to me -- Martin Shann. He created a machine that made noises in response to the movements of the person standing in front of it. 1970, remember, when these were new concepts.

The stuff you describe sounds terrific, though. Would be nice to have it in a room at home!

Sounds like an interesting time you had there at the arts lab.

I really aught to write all this down in journal entry or article
Project Dark had three pieces, all were wonderful looking gramaphones, wooden, big handle, sound horn and all that. Only they had not quite records under the needle. The first had a glass disk, with a set of etched rings on it, the second was a danish biscuit and the third was a circular saw blade, but the needle had been adapted to be a small arcing machine. All produced some form of rhythmic noise.
An outdoor sound sculpture (and I really liked this one) which was a set of induction loops with different natural sounds, water falling, horss hooves, bird calls etc. You were given a pair or headphones which could pick up the signals and then just walked around under the wires, looking out over the concrete sea that's the south bank listening to all these sounds.

OK a journal piece on my main page about this afternoon's visit to the gallery and other things. Most of the stuff I said here already but there you go.

Lil nice editing on Joanna's Photoelectric Effect article. I remember reading it soon after she'd written it Now just how long do I have to wait for my one article to either get accepted or rejected...

I thought that there was some peice of subtle humour in the cartoon that I was obviously too demented to pick out.

The hour is late - I feel like taking the piss out of myself

Oooh, music talk. I been listening to my mate's Ace Of Spades album (by Motörhead). These is a work of genius . Noteable tracks are Ace Of Spades, Capricorn, Metropolis and Steal Your Face. Any second opinion?