Archive for April, 2016

Levitation Austin Music Festival Cancelled

Thursday, April 28th, 2016

Well, this sucks:

Due to safety concerns regarding dangerous weather, Levitation 2016 has been cancelled. This decision is heartbreaking, but it’s a decision officials have made for the safety of festival attendees, and safety is our first priority.

We’ve been working with county officials trying to find a way to carry on, but at this point the decision has been made, and it is beyond our control. The cancellation is due to dangerous weather conditions in the forecast combined with weather complications to the grounds and the Colorado River.

We are completely devastated. We have been working for a year, looking forward to this weekend and seeing you all at the ranch. We know that many of you traveled from far away, and that this news is extremely disappointing for everyone.

At this point, the projected impact of the storms has intensified, and we are now left with no choice but to cancel. You may remember that in 2015 we had severe weather warnings as well, but were able to get through the weekend. The difference between 2015 and 2016 is the severity of the storms being predicted, including high wind, large hail and tornado warnings, combined with high water levels from last week’s flooding.

We have tried every avenue to continue with the festival, and the county has been working with us to find a way, but today at 5:00pm the final decision was made to cancel the festival due to public safety concerns related to severe weather. Following this announcement, the festival has to evacuate the site, meaning that staff and equipment must be loaded out. This leaves us with no opportunity to continue the festival later in the weekend. Even if the weather has improved drastically on Sunday, we would be unable to produce an event at the ranch.

We will be working to keep everyone updated. Please see information on refunds, potential venue shows and other important info below.

Refunds will be issued, but those may take up to 30 days to issue.

Obviously the universe just doesn’t want me to see Slowdive…

Shoegazer Sunday: Unreleased Slowdive Soundtrack Album I am the Elephant, U are the Mouse

Sunday, April 24th, 2016

Next weekend is the Levitation festival in Austin, where Slowdive will be headlining Friday night. In celebration, here’s an entire unreleased Slowdive soundtrack album. Some of these are minor fill pieces, and others you’ve heard before (“Cranium (Film Mix)” is “Blue Skied an’ Clear”). And I already posted “I Believe” a while back, but it’s worked its way into my Slowdive Top 10.

More information (and a download link) here.

Prince RIP

Thursday, April 21st, 2016

Musician Prince, AKA Prince Rogers Nelson, AKA The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, AKA is dead at age 57.

Imagine there’s an embedded video of “Paisley Park” here, since Prince was evidently extra diligent in keeping his music off the Internet…

Library Addition: Michael Swanwick’s Fallen Leaves

Tuesday, April 19th, 2016

It’s another Michael Swanwick Dragonstair Press book with a ridiculously short print run:

Swanwick, Michael, with Marianne Porter. Fallen Leaves. Dragonstairs Press, 2016. First edition hardback, number 17 of 20 signed, numbered copies (the only edition), a Fine copy, sans dust jacket, as issued, with spine label affixed.

Swanwick Leaves

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Says the Publisher:

The Fallen Leaves Project was carried out during October, 2015, in multiple locations around Philadelphia, including Laurel Hill Cemetery, West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Morris Arboretum, and Gorgas Park.

Michael Swanwick composed “epitaphs”, and wrote them on fallen leaves. The leaves were photographed by Marianne Porter and Michael Swanwick within a few feet of where they were found and left where they were, to be discovered by passersby. Or not. The photographs were posted daily throughout October on Twitter, Facebook, and Swanwick’s blog. In total, ninety-four images were created.

Fallen Leaves is a set of albums made of hand-crafted mulberry paper, manufactured by Karin tribe members, with a selection of leaf photographs pasted in. Archival glue was used throughout. Each album contains fifteen images and no two albums contain the same set of images. Fallen Leaves is limited to an edition of twenty albums.

The book sold out pretty much the same day it was announced…

Library Addition: Signed First of Ray Bradbury’s Yestermorrow

Monday, April 18th, 2016

Another signed Ray Bradbury first, this one a collection of essays:

Bradbury, Ray. Yestermorrow. Joshua Odell Editions/Capra Press, 1991. First edition hardback (“First Edition” stated and numberline ending in 1), a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with a tiny bit of dust jacket crimping at head and heel. Inscribed by Bradbury: “Matthew!/Ray Bradbury/ 4/30/94”. Bought off eBay for $20, which is 5¢ over cover price.

Yestermorrow

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Shoegazer Sunday: Dominique Fricot’s “I Miss the 80s”

Sunday, April 17th, 2016

This is probably more pop than Shoegaze, but Dominique Fricot’s “I Miss the 80s” is a fun little song that has a dream pop vibe to it.

Having lived through the 1980s, my only caveat is that these are not the cultural referents I would have personally deployed. Even given that, the song still evokes a bit of wry nostalgia. But part of the point of the song is that it’s not first-hand nostalgia, it’s second-hand nostalgia refracted through the prism of the popular music and movies of the era by someone who was “too young to really know.”

It’s also probably the finest song to ever talk about Jennifer Grey’s nose…

Shoegazer Sunday: Stella Diana’s “Sulphur”

Sunday, April 10th, 2016

Stella Diana hails from Naples, Italy. Here’s “Sulpher.”

Library Addition: Signed Ray Bradbury Christmas 2008 Broadsheet

Tuesday, April 5th, 2016

Bought another signed Ray Bradbury Christmas broadsheet:

Bradbury, Ray. Christmas Greetings 2008 (Imagine that you have been dead). Privately printed, 2008. First edition Christmas broadsheet, a Fine- copy with slight corner bumping. Signed by Bradbury. Bought for $25 off eBay.

Bradbury Christmas 2008 1

Colin Furze Built a Thermite Launcher

Monday, April 4th, 2016

Well of course he did.

Here he is showing off the thermite launcher:

Here he is making the thermite:

And here he is building the the launcher:

Just think, if YouTube didn’t exist, Colin Furze would probably be off somewhere designing industrial flanges rather than enthusiastically garage-engineering amazingly cool and exceptionally dangerous devices for our amusement and edification.

I’m not going to post a “Do not attempt this at home” warning, because every Colin Furze video comes with an implicit “do not attempt this at home.” It’s also possible that Furze’s thermite thrower may qualify as a destructive device under BATF laws, depending on whether it would fall under the pyrotechnic exemption.

But if you do build a thermite launcher, at least wear eye and hand protection…

Berkeley Breathed Wins April Fools

Friday, April 1st, 2016

With Calvin and Hobbes 2016: