I missed the news that one of my favorite jazz saxophonists/composers died recently. Marion Brown was an underrated genius, a towering figure (to me anyway) who should be mentioned in the same breath as Davis, Monk, Coltrane etc. You can read an unpublished interview with him here.

If you don’t know him, try his seminal trio of albums from the 70s: “Afternoon of a Georgia Faun”, “Geechee Recollections” and “Sweet Earth Flying”.

“Smile or Die” is a book about the dangers of positive thinking (probably the first time you’ve heard that phrase, right?). It looks at the history of people who have tried to think away their cancer tumors or have gotten rich by thinking about or focusing on good things. It’s something called ‘magical thinking’. It leaves no room for critical thinking and for that reason alone it sucks in a big way. Here’s a review of the book.

As an extension from my previous post, I came across some interesting writing by esteemed film critic Roger Ebert about loneliness in todays superficial 2.0 bullshit society. Read it here. Don’t forget to browse the comments, a treasure trove of truth and human experience.

“there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock.

people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.

people just are not good to each other
one on one.

the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.

we are afraid.

our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners.

it hasn’t told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.

or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone

untouched
unspoken to

watering a plant.”

~ Charles Bukowski (of course)

I was just listening to The Alliance of Science and decided to google around for producer Nolige who makes some really good tunes inspired by oldschool jungle vibes. Apparently he’s big on this kind of stuff and did a whole mix of tunes from the golden days of 1993 which I will be hosting here for your pleasure.

Tracklist
01. DJ Taktix – The VIP Mix – Back 2 Basics
02. DJ Hype – Shot In The Dark [Gunshot Mix] – Suburban Base Records
03. Johnny Jungle – Flammable [Tango Remix] – Suburban Base Records
04. FBD Project – The Core – Bang-In-Tunes
05. Roger Johnson – The Drum ‘N’ The Bass – Basement Records
06. Lemon D – Parazone – Planet Earth Records
07. Bounty Killaz – Silent Voices – Creative Wax
08. Wax Doctor – A New Direction – Basement Records
09. Hardware – X Amount Of Shots – Face Records
10. Spinback & Windmill – In Effect – Legend Records
11. DJ Crystl – Warpdrive – Dee Jay Recordings
12. DJ Crystl – King Of The Beats – Moving Shadow
13. Intense – Paradox – Rugged Vinyl Records
14. LTJ Bukem & Tayla – Bang The Drums – Good Looking Records
15. DJ Trax – High Time – Moving Shadow
16. Essence Of Aura – The Destiny – Outstanding Productions
17. Foul Play – Open Your Mind [Foul Play Remix] – Moving Shadow
18. Cloud 9 – Mr Logic [Cloud 9 Remix] – Moving Shadow
19. Slipmatt – Breaking Free – Awesome Records
20. Danny Breaks – For The Thinking Positive Crew – Droppin Science
21. Pascal & Sponge – I Got You [Ezee Boy - Jim Polo & Neil Vas Remix] – Dark Horse Records

[ MP3 - 140MB - 256kbps ]

Enjoy!

“The Winnebago Man“. I’ve seen this gem of a documentary yesterday night. It’s about a man, a very frustrated man filled with fury, trying to get through the recording of an industrial video for a particular kind of RV, under not-so-great circumstances. It’s also very cathartic to watch, as he’s probably one of the more eloquent swearers ever caught on tape. He’s like George Carlin’s spiritual brother, inadvertently finding an appreciative audience.

Watch the video which turned him into an Internet phenomenon here and laugh yer ass off.

Then watch the documentary about this well spoken character and find out he’s really a very intelligent man who has a clear and well thought out message for this world. Apparently he’s writing a book and a screenplay (!). The book is titled: “Jousting With the Myth: An Heretical Analysis of God, Religion, Sex, and Politics”, which sounds pretty good to me.

All Things Shining is a blog devoted to interviews and research about this enigmatic little guy called Terrence Malick, who has directed such movies like ‘Badlands’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’.

Considering his reclusive character, this is a gold mine of knowledge about this interesting figure.

Read on!

Based on this ol’ book, the following website will blow your mind. Watch as the dots and notes collide with each other creating magnificent images and sounds. Sometimes it sounds like the building blocks of harmonics are laid bare in these animations.

… I’ve been playing, once again, with the ideas of experimental film pioneer John Whitney, using both graphics and audio. While Whitney was interested in turning musical ideas into motion graphics, I’m doing the inverse — turning one of his key animation ideas back into music. Whitney made a number of films based around the simple idea of harmonic relationships.

Check it out here (but first turn down your stereo!).

So we experienced a nasty hard drive crash recently, nothing is left of the media content of this site… all mixtapes are gone, sadly.

I’m in the process of salvaging the lost media from my own disk and other resources… I think I’ll be able to bring back most if not all of it but it will probably take a while.

Also, Fluor decided to split and run his own blog from now on: 9600,8n1, focusing more on technology.

In the mean time, why don’t you go and look at some skulls? It’s good for you.