The Penultimate Word

More here. Lots of clever images.

I’ve never heard of this singer, but man what a voice! This is from a live session recorded in the Abbey Road studios with Jeff Beck, guitar, Peter King, sax, Jon Cleary, piano, and an unidentified drummer. I ran across this during one my perambulations through YouTube.

This is way cool:

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have developed a prototype contact lens that incorporates an imprinted electronic circuit and lights. The prototype is a step toward creating a form of bionic vision, the researchers say.

The researchers say the flexible lens is biologically safe and was worn by rabbits for up to 20 minutes with no adverse effects. Along with a circuit, the prototype contains red LEDs for a display, though it does not yet light up. The display could potentially create a surface for Web surfing in midair, flash a vehicle’s speed to a driver, or immerse someone in a virtual world, the university said.

Think of the possibilities:

Stuck in a boring meeting? Surf the web - no one would know
Read the music and watch the conductor as the same time
Never take your eyes of the road when getting directions from your GPS device

As long as you don’t start talking like Ahnold…

Detroit-based blogger Sweet Juniper! has a photoset up on Flickr of the Detroit Public Schools book depository, apparently abandoned in the 1980s. The photos are at once sad, strangely beautiful, and infuriating. This is his blog post about them. I had no idea this place even existed.

The building is located near another more famous ruin, the Michigan Central Station. In a real city, this wouldn’t happen.

Yesterday, I went to the 31st Collage Concert staged by the University of Michigan’s Music School at the venerable Hill Auditorium. The format of these concerts is unusual - the last note of one piece overlaps with the first note of the next piece, no break for applause between pieces, with each piece being different, sometimes wildly different, from its predecessor. For example, the first few pieces of last night’s concert were:

1. Overture to Colas Breugnon by Dmitri Kabalevsky, performed by the Symphony Band
2. Kaddish from Deux Mélodies Hebraiques by Maurice Ravel, performed by a soprano with piano accompaniment
3. Samsara, performed with two sitars, bansuri and tabla
4. Gloria from The Masque of Angels by Dominick Argento, performed by a massed choir and symphony band.

I had not heard of any of those works either, but the list illustrates the wide range of music presented. There was some familiar music, but much of it was performed on unexpected instruments. For example, Bach’s famous Partita No. 3 for solo violin, was performed (fantastically) last night on a marimba. There were also jazz ensembles, some dance, Shakespeare, musical theater, and some things completely unclassifiable. The whole concert lasted around and hour and half, with an intermission about halfway through.

U-M’s Music School is one of the top schools around. All of the students enrolled there are going to careers in music, theater or dance, so the level of musicianship is very high. This is a great concert to take people who don’t go to concerts, because there is a lot going on and it is wildly diverse.

Ella is my favorite female pop/jazz singer - her artistry takes a back seat to no one’s, and I love her voice. This is Angel Eyes from a 1957 performance in Amsterdam.

The Library of Congress has started a project where it is putting images from its photo archives on Flickr, and inviting any and all to add Flickr tags to them. The photos have no known copyright restriction on them. Right now, there are over 3,000 photos, with more to come.

This is really cool for so many reasons. It makes all those images freely available to anyone, anywhere. People can add their own tags, so no one is forced into whatever system the archivist uses. It should encourage other archives to open theirs up. Congrats to both the LOC and Flickr for doing this.

Some guy has rated the flags of the world based on their aesthetic value. These are the criteria he used. I don’t agree with all his high grades - I would rate Finland’s and Botswana’s highest. But the lowest graded flags are truly awful.

I did find it a bit tough at first to separate out my feelings toward a particular country from my opinion about the aesthetics of its flag. Somalia and Pakistan are pretty much at the bottom of the list of countries I would want to visit, but their flags are attractive.

My favorite flag is the flag of Wales. That dragon is just awesome.

DC-area vocalist Sharon Clark with her quintet performing You Go To My Head.

Pianist Gene Harris, another one of my favorite jazz musicians, here playing one of the bluesiest versions of Summertime you’ll ever hear.

A short story.

(via Making Light).

(via Schneier)

Happy New Year everyone!

This is the late Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s gorgeous version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World.