Live And Direct

Today's episode of Live and Direct Listens features a musical interpretation of a Finnish epic poem. It's 33.6MB and 1:02:03 long. Ruth MacKenzie's album "Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden" is a mixture of Finnish and English folk song punctuated by a high pitched call named "kulning", which is actually a Finnish animal call. MacKenzie has said that in Kalevala she realized that beauty and ugliness are not too different and also that there is very little separating the earth, the animals and the human voice.The original written work that the album is based upon is called the Kalevala, it was published in 1849 and is a collection of oral tradition which may come from as far back as pre-recorded history and include fragments as recent as the Iron Age. Part creation myth, part folk song and poetry, it has a national Finnish holiday dedicated to it (February 28th) and has influenced numerous artists, of whom Ruth MacKenzie is one. There's an overview of the Kalevala here on wikipedia, along with the sourc

This week's Live and Direct, episode number 10, is about the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the illegal and unconstitutional federal income tax. This podcast version is 1:00:47 long and the file size is 21.9MB. The podcast includes an extra 7 minute clip at the end about so-called tax criminals who were harassed and brutalized by the IRS, including a family whose small business and personal life was scrutinized mercilessly by the IRS, though they had done no wrong and had in fact paid their taxes, and a historic celebrity boxer during WWII named Joe Lewis whose winnings, though donated entirely to others, were taxed by the IRS, putting him so deeply into debt that his once-hated opponent paid for his funeral.Some talking points from the clips I played follow. Remember:The 16th Amendment was never legally ratified by the states.The federal income tax is a direct, unapportioned tax, which is illegal as per the Constitution.As Catherine Fitts (former Assistant Secretary of Housing) explained, the governme

Click, download, listen! Live and Direct number 9 (Live and Direct Listens ep #3) has arrived. It's 48.9MB, and 56:10 long. In it, I featured an album composed in real time on the Internet by a group of musicians collaborating with some software called NetPD. NetPD in turn relies on PD, which is a graphical programming language particularly suited to music synthesis and composition, but also extensible to video and other forms of data, hence the name "Pure Data".The album is "dub" in style, featuring samples and loops that wind here and there at the whim of the collective controlling them. I played most of it, sans the last bit, which I had to cut for time constraints whilst on-air. If you wish to listen to it, you can find the whole thing here as an mp3. It's 72.1MB and 1:18:44 long, and the bit that I cut starts at 1:08:03 and goes till the end.If you're interested in playing around with PD, you should check out the main site listed above as well as other sites on the PD webring. PD comes in Mac, Wi

=Live and Direct episode #8 has arrived. It features background and critical analysis concerning the Federal Reserve System, why it is illegal and unconstitutional, and why it must be abolished. This episode runs for 55:33, and is 50.9MB. For your convenience, the times listed below in parentheses indicate the start and end of each segment.The song I played is Money For Nothing, by Dire Straits (it's between 01:12 and 09:12).I then played the intro to Aaron Russo's documentary "America: Freedom to Fascism" (09:48 to 13:30). "Freedom to Fascism" is a timely, shocking expose of the duplicitous and corrupt nature of not only the Federal Reserve, but also the IRS and the federal income tax. You may watch a low-quality version of it here on Google Video, see it in select theatres, rent it, or buy it directly from Aaron's site. Aaron also maintains a blog on the site with timely news, interviews, and commentary.Next up is a 2002 speech before Congress by Ron Paul, current Presidential hopeful and monetary-ref

A scant week later, it's time for Live and Direct, episode #7. This week I've assembled a hypothetical soundtrack to the 80's comedy Real Genius, starring Val Kilmer. I say "hypothetical" because there was never an official soundtrack, however many fans have compiled their own lists of songs heard in the movie. This week's show is 44.5MB and runs for 50:36.The playlist for the show is below, along with the point in time at which each song starts (minutes:seconds). The only song played in the movie that is not included is Tonio K's "The Tuff Do What", as it is unreleased and apparently unavailable in the wild. (however, if you have it, please, please send me a copy?)You Took Advantage of Me - Carmen McRae, 01:31I'm Falling - The Comsat Angels, 03:32Number One - Chaz Jankel, 08:01All She Wants to Do Is Dance - Don Henley, 11:50One Night Love Affair - Bryan Adams, 17:01The Walls Came Down - The Call, 21:26Pleasure Seekers - The System, 25:47Standing in the Line - The Textones, 30:25Summertime Girls - Yesterd

This, the sixth episode of Live and Direct is now available for your consumption and critical analysis. It's me, interviewing protestors and activists who were at last Sunday's demonstration and who are involved with several local organizations whose causes include pro-impeachment, anti-war, and pro-peace groups. This episode is 53MB and features 57:56 of thoughtful, non-mainstream political discussion. What follows is an annotated timeline.I first interviewed Sue Ferra (at 1:33) and George Miller (at 2:58) at the From Every Village Green protest on Sunday.NOTE: in the show I got the percentage wrong of Americans who would favor impeachment, given Bush's lies about the war. It was actually 53% in favor of impeachment vs. 42% against. For details, see Majority of Americans Support Impeachment.As George suggests, you should google "federal reserve bank ownership" and read for yourself the history and true nature of what many Americans assume is a branch of their government.Here is a 2002 speech by Congress

Behold, Live and Direct #5. This, the second episode of Live and Direct Listens, and the 5th episode of Live and Direct, is upon us. This too-long-for-the-air, uncompromising, special podcast version runs for one hour, ten minutes, and seventeen seconds, and will set you back 64.4 megabytes of disk space.Today's featured Listen is ESCM by BT (also known as Brian Transeau). This album was released in 1997 following his debut album Ima. The US version (featured in this podcast) included the track "Lullaby for Gaia" (5:26); in the UK, the track included instead was "The Road to Lostwithiel" (8:38), which I have not heard but will attempt to dig up.I didn't have time to play tracks 5 and 6 ("Memories In A Sea Of Forgetfulness" and "Solar Plexus") on air, but I've inserted them in the proper place in the podcast, thanks to Audacity, a podcaster's best friend.BT rose to fame in the late Nineties and helped define the sub-genre of Electronica called Trance (specifically "Dream Trance"). His albums, however, ofte

Live and Direct episode 4 is available for you to download and enjoy. It's 44.4MB in size, and 48 minutes and 24 seconds long. Live and Direct Listens is a new series on my show where I'll play cohesive albums in their entirety, as they were meant to be heard. This week's album is Chill Out, by the KLF.I prefer to listen to this album at night, because of the atmosphere and mood it evokes. It brings to mind a road trip through the Deep South, which was the artists' intent:I've never been to those places. I don't know what those places are like, but in my head, I can imagine those sounds coming from those places, just looking at the map.Chill Out is one of my favorite ambient albums of all time, by one of my favorite artists of all time. Let me know what you think of it, and if you have any suggestions for future albums to feature on Live and Direct, drop me a line.

Here is my third episode of Live and Direct. This one clocks in at 45:18 long, and 41.5MB big.This show is about weather, specifically of the man-made variety.Here's the playlist of songs:They Might Be Giants - The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent GasThe Weather Girls - It's Raining MenLittle Fluffy Clouds - The OrbHere are some pictures demonstrating atmospheric phenomena that most people would agree are beyond the common understanding of meteorology: holes punched out of clouds: geometric cloud patterns: wave fronts in existing clouds made by scalar weather manipulation (clouds aren't supposed to have r-r-r-ridges): "boiling sky/boiling clouds" - I saw this phenomenon, along with many other people, at the 2005 Common Ground fair in Unity, ME. Check out my gallery of weird weather from 9/25/05. Regretfully those pictures are terribly overexposed, but I have increased the contrast so you might be able to see the "artificial domes" in the cloud bottoms that fair attendees saw that day. Compare the re

Here is Live and Direct episode #2, "Auddities" in a slightly edited podcast (i added two songs; think of it as the Deluxe Remastered Podcast Edition). It weighs in at 62.5MB and clocks in at 1:08:15. (I ran over due to excess blabbing... good thing the hosts of the show after mine couldn't make it :)"Auddities" = "audio" + "oddities". These run the gamut from odd sounds to unusual production techniques to strange content. I divided the show up into the following sections, each followed by the approximate starting time (should you wish to skip to a particular section):Introduction, 0:00:00Algorithmic music, 0:00:42MIDI music, 0:04:52Tracked music, 0:10:20Sample-heavy music, 0:19:35(note for upstate NY peeps: Rochester/Vertex shoutout @0:33:30)Digitally produced music, 0:34:00Numbers stations (The Conet Project PDF; music: disc 1, disc 2, disc 3, disc 4), 0:42:40Natural phenomena (Electric Enigma PDF; music: disc 1, disc 2), 0:50:10Music about odd things, 0:54:46Wrap-up, 1:07:18The playlist for this show is

Here is my first show in mp3 format, minus the technical difficulties: Live and Direct #1 (49.4MB, 53:57). It features my introduction, a song by Enigma, and a speech by Terence McKenna entitled "Culture and Ideology are not Your Friends". It's dedicated to my daughter Abigail, with a little surprise from her at the end.As soon as I figure out how to do it, a podcast feed will be available. EDIT: I re-encoded it as a 22KHz MP3; I apologize if that's still too big for some people to download. Thanks for listening, and please share your thoughts.