"Bird Life" is this week's "Camera Critters" post. If you want to participate, click on the image above.
The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations (1997)
For years amateur shortwave radio enthusiasts have been coming across strange signals in the global static. These mysterious broadcasts would typically announce themselves with some beeps and blips, then robotic disembodied voices would start reciting groups of numbers (or phonetic alphabet letters) in spooky foreign monotones. ‘Seven, zero, nine, eleven…Seven, zero, nine, eleven…’; ‘Alpha, charlie, lima, delta…Alpha, charlie, lima, delta…’ Then, after a few minutes, they disappeared. This was weird. ‘What the hell is it?!’, was on the lips of many listeners. They became known as Numbers Stations, and no official explanation had ever been given when Akin Fernandez came across them in 1992. So the industrious radio addict started to log the frequencies and the times and the messages of these enigmatic occurrences. And more importantly, he recorded them. Some appeared at random. Some were as regular as clockwork. He had no idea what he was going to do with all the data. But he eventually compiled them into a collection he called The Conet Project, and he made it freely available. Along the way, Fernandez would eventually learn the nature of these numbers, and the answer to the long asked question was sobering. These were covert messages sent to field operatives for all the major espionage agencies over the world: CIA, KGB, MI6, BND, StB, MOSSAD etc. Since WWI shortwave has provided these agencies with a world-wide fool-proof method for communicating with their spies. The encoded message could be received and deciphered by the spy with the use of a “one time pad”, a disposable dictionary key, intended for use only once, then presumably burnt, destroyed, eaten etc. Immediately the broadcasts take on an ominous overtone. The voice of a child eerily reading out numbers could well be instructing a spy to kill someone or blow something up. They’re a compelling listen. I got right into them. I even got myself a shortwave radio and started to scan the late night bands. And Fernandez’s recordings have slowly become a cult thing, popping up in sampled form in film (Vanilla Sky) and music (Boards of Canada), most famously by Wilco on their 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It’s still freely available to download from Akin Fernandez’s label Irdial-Discs website, so if you haven’t heard it, get ready to be spooked. Literally.
Before we get started, I’ll let you know that my ratings system has changed. Damned ratings! Why do I bother? Is it because I cannot articulate how much I enjoyed or disliked a film that I need a rating to confirm my opinion? Or does it simply stem from a youth of writing reviews of each film I happened to see in a cheap, weathered notebook, accompanied by an “out-of-ten” rating? Just an old habit…?
Whatever the reason, on reflection, I had far too much going on with my reviews on this blog. I mean, what was the difference between 4 stars (previously known as “Awesome Shit” – and whilst we are here, I hate the word “awesome” – why do I use it?) and 5 stars (“Instant Classic”)? If a film can be classified as ‘awesome’ (ie: inspires awe), wouldn’t that then be a ‘classic’? Yeah, I know…it’s confusing. So, it’s all been changed. Simplified. Hopefully for the best.
OK…let’s head back to the swingin’ sixties.
"Sibling Love..." is this week's "Camera Critters" post. If you want to participate, click on the image above.
On the 3rd May, the Chaiten volcano erupted in spectacular fashion, 800 miles south of Santiago in Chile. The photographs below were captured at night as the volcano did its thing amid a thunderstorm.
About a year ago, the volcano erupted for the first time in what was believed to be around 9,000 years. Evacuations of the neighbouring town of Chaiten have since been a regular occurrence as the volcano proceeds through its new eruptive phase.
by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)
I See Films
Hugh Jackman and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are the subjects of the latest review by freelance writer and friend of GritFX Adam “The Faystar” Fay at I See Films (So You Don’t Have To). Now don’t expect Faystar to actually let you in on what the films he discusses are all about. His frequently hilarious, opinionated ‘reviews’ veer toward critique of the people involved and Hollywood in general rather than to any standard, run-of-the-mill film review (like, um, Wadrick’s Thirty Second Film Reviews…). So if you happen to be a film fanatic like Faystar (and myself), you’d do well to visit I See Films.
Time to play again – this post was due over a week ago. Let me just start by asking is it me, or is this year flying past?
Jim (affectionately self-titled as The Movie Whore) left a comment on this blog a few weeks back regarding Jason Mewes, best known as Jay to Kevin Smith’s Silent Bob. Jim and his buddy had discovered how easy it was to link Mewes to Hollywood names in the tradition of the great Kevin Bacon. Which begs the question as to why I don’t change this game to Six Degrees of Jason Mewes…?
Anyway, linking Mewes to the big Bacon was quite easy – perhaps proving Jim’s theory. Mewes appeared in Kevin Smith’s Dogma with Matt Damon; Damon starred in The Legend of Bagger Vance with Charlize Theron; and the gorgeous Charlize had a role in Trapped with the fried Bacon (mmmm!)..jpg)
Of course, if anyone can link these two in fewer moves, let me know. Suggestions for future Six Degrees posts here on the GritBLOG are also most welcome.
by Wadrick Jones
Check out Kevin Bacon's charity website based on the "six degrees" concept at:
SixDegrees.org
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)
Tortoise deserve a genre named after them. It would at least make things easier for the unimaginative fools (like me) who write about music. Then I could just say: ‘In 1996, Chicago band Tortoise released this landmark album of Tortoise music that took Tortoise in a new direction and changed the way people would think about Tortoise forever. Only Tortoise can play Tortoise the way Tortoise was meant to played.’ It wouldn’t make much sense, but it would be so much easier. Post-rock, Prog-rock, Alternative, Experimental, Electronica, Jazz, Krautrock…none of these terms really seemed to sum them up, even though there were undeniable elements of all those things in their music. The opening song “Djed” was an epic 20-minute long soundscape that evolved - much like humankind - out of the static slime, and grumbled along the ground on bass fins until it merged with the drums and took its first steps on Neu! legs. Then things were happening. By five minutes in, you were compelled to see where this new species of music was going. And it certainly is a journey of an album. A free-flowing wordless trek through the primordial ooze of avant-garde music, from John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, to Can and Faust, to Fripp & Eno, to Neil Young and the future Wilco, to Radiohead and Godspeed You Black Emperor! This sounded like something that was there in the background of all that music. Rubbing stones and sticks together, searching for that fresh spark. “Glass Museum” is a journeying raft on rough waves of slow-motion ocean, sailing off to find new land, and document the various species of life found there. “A Survey” makes camp in the darkness of unmapped forests and braves the night, while “Along the Banks of Rivers” finally heads for home with renewed perspectives, somewhat philosophical now of the fates (and double-edged prizes) that await those who venture into the unknown.
OK, so as well as everything else I seem to do lately, I am now a partner in Idology T-Shirts – the American Idol Fan T-Shirt Shop. Due to a recent arrangement with the producers and those who hold the rights to the Idol franchise, Cafepress – the print-on-demand supplier for Idology T-Shirts – can now freely market all Idol-related fan gear. As a result, Idology T-Shirts designs were featured exclusively this week on the Official American Idol website. Idol Man (not his real name) and myself were totally over-the-moon at the sight of this excellent free advertising.
So to all you American Idol fans out there – make sure you visit Idology T-Shirts, now offering a range of other cool merchandise for all of this season’s contestants.
Here are some new design releases I happened to be involved with.
Click on the following links to view all apparel items for that design:
Cougars for Kris
Gokey: Heaven Sent
Allison Rocks
Lambert: 21st Century King
by Manz
"Theodore..." is this week's "Camera Critters" post. If you want to participate, click on the image above.
Hitching a ride into orbit with the space shuttle Discovery in April 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken incredibly clear and detailed images for almost twenty years. After some initial forestalling of the launch and eventual problems with one its mirrors, the Telescope has proven to be an invaluable aid for astronomers and is scheduled to be replaced in 2013 by the brand spanking new James Webb Space Telescope - named after James E. Webb, the second administrator of NASA.
Here are a few of Hubble’s greatest moments.
“Cat’s Eye” Nebula – three thousand light-years from Earth and over half a light-year across.
The Orion Nebula – only 1,500 light-years from Earth in an area where stars are formed.
“The Sombrero Galaxy”, named for obvious reasons.
V838 Mon – this image is often referred to as “Starry Night”.
“Cone” Nebula, within a star-forming region.
The “Eskimo” Nebula – some say this resembles a person’s head inside the hood of a parka, but it looks more like an iris to me.
NGC 2818 – this is what a dying star looks like.
by Max Drake
(Freelance writer and artist for GritFX.)
(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk)
"Candy... How Sweet She Is!" is this week's "Camera Critters" post. If you want to participate, click on the image above.
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