January 2012
24 posts
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“Q: What made you decide to start composing your own film scores? Was it out of...”
– John Carpenter, interviewed in The Quietus (via rocketsandrayguns)
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“At their first conference, as Wykys laid out the papers, he had said,...”
– Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
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emotionallychargedtowel replied to your quote: There is a letter George wrote to Ann Smiley
B. and I finally went to see Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy yesterday and it has left me really wanting to read some Le Carre.
Do it! You won’t regret it. I’ve gotten through Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy, and am saving the third Karla book (Smiley’s People) as a...
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“There is a letter George wrote to Ann Smiley—he says—in the heat of the crisis,...”
– John le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy
Probably one of the most emotionally devastating spy novels you’ll ever read, by which I mean I recommend it wholeheartedly.
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“But there is a world of difference between the traditional notion of public...”
– Meghan Daum, “Haterade”, in The Believer
This is easily one of the top pieces I’ve read on the toxicity of comments sections and the shouty-shouty nature of internet discourse in the modern era. “Joining the conversation” is bullshit; it’s only worth it in fora...
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Rockets & Rayguns: My Filter Bubble →
rocketsandrayguns:
Every once in a while someone will ask me, “How did you find that?” and I start trying to explain what you see below.
This is a really great summary of an information-intake system, curated by trusted sources (i.e. one’s friends and others whose opinions one respects). Mine is fairly similar, although I haven’t yet come around on Flipboard.
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“Darkness”, a new song by Leonard...
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Cyberpunk Bowie, New Wave Bowie: A Look at Scary... →
My latest for Tor.com, for their Bowie Week series.
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WatchHappy New Year, folks. Via NME, here’s the video for the new Scissor Sisters single, “Shady Love”.
December 2011
32 posts
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Alex Ross: 'Tis the season for the Messiah on... →
Follow the link to Alex Ross’s blog, above.
Listen to the embedded sound clip (requires Flash, sorry).
Laugh uproariously.
Go here for the back story.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-18) →
Delia Derbyshire (43)
John Baker (33)
Tristram Cary (28)
Simone Dinnerstein (19)
Astor Piazzolla (17)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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One Week One Band—The Whole List
Monday
How I discovered radiophonics—an introduction
The Tomorrow People
Daphne Oram, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and excerpt from The Same Trade as Mozart
The interior of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop studio
Daphne Oram—”Pompie Ballet”
Tuesday
Delia Derbyshire, “Blue Veils and Golden Sands”
Delia describes her method of making music with tape-loops
“Science and Health”, the music deemed “too...
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“I submit as a law of editorial physics that the author’s desire to include a...”
– Peter Ginna, “When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips”.
Guilty as charged.
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One Week One Band—Thursday
Tristram Cary and EMS
EMS publicity materials for their synthesizers
Doctor Who: The “Delaware” version of the theme
VCS3 patch diagram for “Poetry from Prisons”
Malcolm Clarke and Desmond Briscoe and the Workshop’s Synthi 100
Doctor Who: Peter Howell’s 1980 arrangement of the theme
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One Week One Band—Wednesday
The longest tape-loop in London
John Baker: Oranges and Lemons
John Baker at work
How the “Reading Your Letters” theme for Woman’s Hour was made
Delia Derbyshire and “Ziwzih Ziwzih oo-oo-oo”
Delia Derbyshire, Electrosonic, and “Nightwalker”
Unit Delta Plus artifacts
White Noise, “Firebird”
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My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11) →
rocketsandrayguns:
hangingfire:
Delia Derbyshire (46)
David Bowie (33)
BBC Radiophonic Workshop / Paddy Kingsland (12)
White Noise (8)
Peter Howell (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Ha!
*shifty look*
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11) →
Delia Derbyshire (46)
David Bowie (33)
BBC Radiophonic Workshop / Paddy Kingsland (12)
White Noise (8)
Peter Howell (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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One Week One Band—Tuesday
Delia Derbyshire, “Blue Veils and Golden Sands”
Delia describes her method of making music with tape-loops
“Science and Health”, the music deemed “too lascivious” by a BBC producer
The 1963 Doctor Who Theme
Undated newspaper article about Ron Grainer
The opening and closing titles to An Unearthly Child
Also, once this week is over, I seriously need...
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One Week One Band—Monday
How I discovered radiophonics—an introduction
The Tomorrow People
Daphne Oram, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and excerpt from The Same Trade as Mozart
The interior of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop studio
Daphne Oram—”Pompie Ballet”
Welcome to those of you who came here by way of One Week One Band. I assure you the quality of content here at Hangingfire Central is, in general,...
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One Week // One Band: How I discovered... →
oneweekoneband:
Back in the early days of cable TV, Nickelodeon didn’t have much—if anything—in the way of original programming. It was all ganked from the UK or Canada, so there was some small subsection of my Generation X cohort that spent lazy summer days getting dosed up on Bagpuss, Bod, Simon in the Land of…
And away we go. No, I’m not going to reblog every one of these, not...
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Coming up: Delia Derbyshire and the BBC...
oneweekoneband:
Thank you, Ian!
Now for next week, we’ll cover a topic I’m really looking forward to (and know very little about…)
Karin Kross (who blogs at hangingfire.tumblr.com) will talk about English composer and electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire and her work (and those of her contemporaries) at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Derbyshire famously arranged the Doctor Who theme, but...
The awkward moment when the music in Rick Perry's...
j-ralphios:
/rolls up sleeves, puts on classical pedant hat
The music in question actually isn’t by Copland, as the New Yorker’s classical critic Alex Ross explains on his blog. It’s trying damn hard to be, though, and the point still stands that right-wing pols have persisted in appropriating Copland’s music and his “all-American” style without...
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Catching Up To the Future: An Appreciation of... →
My latest contribution to Tor.com.
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2011 Media Recap
I always swear that I’m going to do a better job of keeping track of this shit, and then I don’t. So have a bunch of random thoughts about music, books, comics, movies, and TV, in no particular order.
I started reviewing books for Publisher’s Weekly this year, and I also joined the reviewing/blogging staff at Tor.com. Due in no small part to lack of focus, I haven’t posted...