It is difficult to free fools...

Recently added to my wish list at Amazon and presented here for today's soundtrack is Wagner Transformed by J. Peter Schwalm, an ambient-leaning interpretation of the composer's work.

For those of you who prefer your music farther out in left field, avant garde musical group Bang on a Can performed a 5-hour marathon.

Van Eaton Galleries' auction of Disneyland memorabilia netted $1.7 million including $154,000 for a 1970s era animatronic bird from the Enchanted Tiki Room.

This screen capture from a NASA video shows global precipitation.

Of the 10 breakthrough technologies for 2015 presented by MIT Technology Review, the one that really caught my attention was Megascale Desalination.

How do you peel a 10 km layer off the surface of the entire planet? Impact with a 500 km asteroid, of course.

What would it look like if you 3D printed your 3D animated film? It would look like this.

The first photograph that captures the particle-wave duality of light.

A photo essay on famous artists in their studios.

Do you buy lottery tickets? Will you continue to buy them after trying this Powerball Simulator? In a simulated 50 years of playing a quick-pick ticket twice a week I've turned each dollar invested into 7 cents and haven't won more than $7 on any one ticket.

Use Crumbles to make video montages like this one.

Rich person Paul Allen has begun building the world's largest airplane.

Harrison Ford is confirmed for the Blade Runner sequel.

Remember that 4K video I posted of passage through the South China Sea? Here's another seascape that's generated completely by computer.

Begin Rant

This is vile. Not so much that UC Irvine students banned the US flag from their student government room on campus, but the fact that their resolution includes this statement: "Whereas freedom of speech, in a space that aims to be as inclusive as possible can be interpreted as hate speech." Another example of how far-left liberals are actually limiting free speech because apparently these pussies believe that the First Amendment includes the right to not be offended - as if the presence of the US flag actually did that in the first place. The fact that these kids are actually able propose and vote on this nutty issue illustrates the irony of their position. I kinda expected to see the crazy phrase "micro aggression" littered throughout their little policy document.

End Rant

Science reveals all. The average flaccid penis is 3.6 inches in length and the average erect penis is 5.2 inches. Read the details of this study from the British Journal of Urological Surgeons.

...from the chains they revere. ~Voltaire

Nuclear Burn by Brand X

All the jazz fusion
I haven't heard in decades.
Now in one jewel case.

Fans of jazz-rock fusion, rejoice! Fans of lesser-known recordings of Phil Collins, rejoice! Brand X's Nuclear Burn is a 4-CD compilation of the group's first 5 albums from the mid 1970s to 1980 and some live performances.

Fans of Phil Collins, especially those late to the game, may enjoy hearing him drumming with more finesse and expression that perhaps you're used to with his Genesis and solo work.

Fans of fusion cannot ignore the quality of the band's lineup throughout the era represented by this box set: John Goodsall, Percy Jones, Morris Pert, Robin Lumley, Kenwood Dennard, Jack Lancaster, J. Peter Robinson, Chuck Bergi, Mike Clark, and John Gilbin. And Phil Collins.

And the live recordings, which I had never heard before, simply round out any fan's experience of the band.

I tried to find a good video on YouTube of the band performing live to give you a taste of what they're about. The best I came up with is this low-quality recording of their performance on the TV show Old Grey Whistle Test from 1979.

To use a very poor analogy, if you'd like an edgier version of Weather Report or Spyrogrya, give Brand X a try. The band's union of skilled performances with a titular sense of humor reminds me a little bit of The Aristocrats, albeit 4 decades earlier.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.

What we anticipate seldom occurs...

First, a selection of music videos.

• Steve Hackett performing In That Quiet Earth live
• King Crimson performing The ConstruKction of Light live
• Harold Budd and Clive Wright "jamming" earlier this month
• Twinscapes performing Shaken live

Interesting: Mike Rutherford cites King Crimson, the Beatles, the Stones, and Mowtown as early influences in Genesis' music.

Guitar legend Allan Holdsworth will release an album of previously unreleased tracks and you have an opportunity to pre-order with various premiums at Pledge Music. I've already made my pledge.

OK astronomy fan bois, get out your drool cups. Seems that there are two unexplained bright spots on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres. Alien bonfires or maybe raves?

Coin collecting is not difficult because sometimes you just have to look at your pocket change. For example, you can still find Buffalo Nickels that are worth between $0.50-$1.00. Read about four other old coins you can still find.

Seafarers will enjoy this 93 minute, 4K, uncut shot from the bow of a ship as it sails the South China Sea. Be sure to set the playback to 4K and go full screen.

A map of sorts. Countries of the world sorted by land area.

Know yer space probes.

The North Korean government has come up with 130 new patriotic slogans. (I hope they didn't pay their PR firm too much for this.) They are comic gold. A couple examples:

• Let us build a fairyland for the people by dint of science! (I had to look up dint.)
• Electricity is the lifeline of the national economy. (If you've seen the same satellite photo I have, this slogan says maybe more than they intended.)
• Fertilizer means rice and socialism. (There's probably more fertilizer in these slogans.)
• Builders!

Original concept art for Disney's Cinderella (1950) by Mary Blair. source

Here's the actual carriage (photographed by me at Disney's Hollywood Studios) used in the filming of Disney's new live-action Cinderella, due out next month.

In other movie news, director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) is going to make an Aliens sequel that is independent of Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. This should be interesting.

From the craft pr0n department comes this video love letter to plywood.

The average American's stress level is in the unhealthy range (4.9 vs. 3.7 on a 10 scale) and you can probably guess what the #1 factor is. So I'll tell you #2: work.

Get lost in Lights.

...what we least expected generally happens. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Inferno by Dan Brown

From the depths of hell,
rising through purgatory,
Langdon leads us up.

Inferno appears to be the latest Robert Langdon adventure (i.e. The DaVinci Code) from Dan Brown. His other books have been solid adventures full of mystery, conspiracy, and symbology so I gave this one a try.

When Prof. Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with no memory of how he got there or why, his attempts to unravel his memory only further ensnare him in a Divine Comedy themed mystery that he has apparently partially solved but can't recall. But he's running out of time as a mad scientist (literally) plans to unleash something unthinkable on the world. And without a memory, it's hard for him to tell who's really his enemy and who's really his friend.

There are a few places where Inferno gets a little talky as it tries to transition through a plot twist and at least one place where I caught a whiff of Michael Crichton-esque screenplay, as opposed to novel, writing. But overall Inferno was an enjoyable book.

And it inspired me to put Dante's Divine Comedy on my to-read list.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.

Overworked and Overwhelmed by Scott Eblin

Overworked? Surely.
Overwhelmed? Without a doubt.
Help? Who has the time?

The title, Overworked and Overwhelmed, pretty much says it all when it comes to my decision to buy Scott Eblin's book while passing through Chicago's O'Hare airport. I was in the middle of reading Williams and Penman's Mindfulness and this one seemed to be the obvious addition to my reading list.

But me reading this is like an alcoholic reading a book called Drunk and Hungover in the sense it was more like reinforcing what I already knew rather than learning how to address it (although the subject matter is very similar). The latter is what I expect to get from Mindfulness, despite this ultimate goal being almost a year in the making.

How much longer will it take? I'll see if I can find the time.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.

Twenty by Adrian Belew

Who knew you could play
guitar by doing more than
just plucking the strings.

You won't find Adrian Belew's Twenty on sale at Amazon or anywhere else that I know of. That's because it was one of the rewards made available to backers of his Kickstarter campaign for FLUX: "music that is never the same way twice."

The album is a collection of 20 of Adrian's favorite songs from his previous albums. What comes through is his strong Beatles influence. Many of the songs sound like they could've been pulled directly off a George Harrison album. But for a follower of his work with King Crimson, Twenty was a nice way to broaden my perspective of his work.

1. Big Blue Sun
2. Men in Helicopters
3. Burned by the Fire We Make
4. I Remember How to Forget
5. Here
6. Looking for a UFO
7. People
8. On 
9. Bad Days
10. This is What I Believe In
11. Man in the Moon (remix)
12. Young Lions
13. Vy
14. House of Cards (remix)
15. Time Waits
16. Birds
17. One of Those Days
18. Fly
19. Postcard
20. 1967

To give you an idea of what Adrian Belew can do with a guitar, here's him playing solo, coaxing and sometimes strangling music out of his instrument. (Be sure to listen to parts 2 and 3 also.)

For a guy who jokes about being fired from two bands during 2014 (Nine Inch Nails and King Crimson), Belew seems to have quite a bit more music to share.

Adrian's website is www.adrianbelew.net.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.

Endless City/Concrete Garden by Roger Eno & Plumbline

An album with two
names, competing visions of
tempo and rhythm.

For an album of ambient soundscapes, Endless City/Concrete Garden by the pair of Roger Eno and Plumbline (aka Will Thomas) is rife with tension. To this ear it's as though Eno's piano is one's public face - serene, flowing, clear - with Plumbline's percussive, pulsing effects a muted cacophony of nearly suppressed inner thoughts. (At least that's how I imagine them splitting the duties.)

For a view less psychological, the effect is like a precision timepiece with sweep second hand while beneath the face, tiny machinations give time its pulse.

The overall effect is one of fine balance, of depth, and a slightly maddening mystery as the two halves compete for dominance.

Try a taste for yourself with Pulling Strings.

Roger Eno's website is www.rogereno.com and Plumbline's is www.neutralmusic.com/plumbline.php.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.