terror in a onesie

Vampire Weekend

2009-11-06T21:22:33Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

It’s the weekend! Let’s celebrate like vampires!

You know, I’m not really sure those guys are actually vampires at all.

Biblical Marriage

2009-11-05T15:11:08Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.
-Genesis 28:8-9

“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.”
-Deuteronomy 25:5

After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.
-2 Samuel 5:13

“‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.’”
-Leviticus 18:18

If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
-Deuteronomy 22:28-29

Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.” … When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.” And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave hm his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
- Genesis 29:16-18,25-28

Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry.
-1 Corinthians 7:1

Two Weeks of Photos

2009-11-03T18:21:54Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

The past two weekends we’ve been busy, busy, busy. And I’ve got the photos to prove it!

Space and Rocket Center

Some friends came to visit for the day and we played at Rocket City’s biggest attraction.

Halloween

This year Eli finally got “trick or treating” and Liza thought carrying her bag of candy was almost not worth the effort. Oh wait, what am I saying? There was candy in that bag! Liza could have hauled that thing to Timbuktu for the crumbs off of a Kit Kat.

Floating High Above the Sky

2009-11-02T17:58:49Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I’m traveling today and tomorrow to Mountain View, so no long posts from me! Instead, gaze upon Airship Ventures, which offers zeppelin tours of the SF bay area. I’ve seen them flying their dirigible previously when I’ve been out here in the Bay area, but I only recently learned that they’ll let you actually fly the zeppelin.

All I need is $3,000 and my pilot license. No sweat!

Yes, But Do You Have a Flag?

2009-10-30T14:15:44Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

That’s a mighty fine picture of the Apollo 17 landing site and the American flag that Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan planted on the sound stage where all of this was faked.

(Pic taken by the fantabulous Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and courtesy of NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University. NASA also has a larger version. Seen over at On Orbit.)

Ares I-X Takes Flight

2009-10-28T17:50:01Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

That needle leaping skywards is NASA’s first new launch system in some three decades. It’s intended to be the first step towards a new rocket to launch people into space. It’s the tallest rocket we’ve currently got going, and is only 11 meters shorter than the historic Saturn V. I didn’t have any involvement with this rocket, but many of my friends did. Congratulations, y’all. You’ve done good.

Today’s Non-News News Headline

2009-10-27T17:55:42Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Courtesy of MSNBC: “In reality, some stage parents are very scary”.

You don’t say.

This bit of hyperventilation brought to you by the Balloon Boy incident, which MSNBC covered extensively. I can’t imagine why parents think these kinds of stunts will result in publicity.

Things That Make Me Happy Today

2009-10-26T16:10:20Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

The guitar parts for Modest Mouse’s “Dashboard”.

Friday Animal Collective Video

2009-10-23T17:16:35Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Here’s something to liven up your Friday: a very spacey video for “My Girls”, by Animal Collective.

Perhaps Microsoft Could Hire Count von Count

2009-10-22T15:22:36Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Today is Windows 7 day. How exciting! I began wondering why Windows 7 was called Windows 7 and started trying to count versions to figure out the numbering scheme.

Let’s see. If we consider consumer-oriented versions of Windows, then 95 could be version 4, 98 would be 5, ME would be 6, XP would be 7, Vista 8, and Windows 7 would be 9. Hm, that can’t be right. Maybe we should restrict our numbering to the versions using the NT kernel. Then Windows 2000 could be 5, XP could be 6, Server 2003 could be 7 — or maybe we should skip that and make Vista 7, so that Windows 7 could be 8.

Geez, this is hard. I feel like I’m trying to explain the timeline of pre-Tribulation eschatology. Maybe Microsoft can clear things up.

I’ll say up front, that there are many ways to count the releases of Windows and it’s been both a trip down memory lane and quite amusing to read all the different theories about how we got to the number “7.”

Anyway, the numbering we used is quite simple.

Oh, excellent! Do explain.

The very first release of Windows was Windows 1.0, the second was Windows 2.0, the third Windows 3.0.

I’m with you so far.

Here’s where things get a little more complicated. Following Windows 3.0 was Windows NT which was code versioned as Windows 3.1. Then came Windows 95, which was code versioned as Windows 4.0.

But I thought Windows 3.1 was Windows 3.1, and Windows NT was a completely different beast! At least Windows 95 as Windows 4.0 makes a kind of sense. I bet Microsoft then counted Windows 98 as Windows 5.0 –

Then, Windows 98, 98 SE and Windows Millennium each shipped as 4.0.1998, 4.10.2222, and 4.90.3000, respectively. So we’re counting all 9x versions as being 4.0.

What the what what what? 4.10.2222? They’re just pulling numbers out of a hat now.

Windows 2000 code was 5.0 and then we shipped Windows XP as 5.1, even though it was a major release we didn’t’ want to change code version numbers to maximize application compatibility.

So Windows XP was a major change, but they gave it the version number 5.1. This is adding support to my Numbers From a Hat theory.

That brings us to Windows Vista, which is 6.0. So we see Windows 7 as our next logical significant release and 7th in the family of Windows releases.

Oh, man. This is the quite simple numbering scheme? Where you have a major release that you number as 5.1 instead of 6 just because? Though given this rule, I’m sure Microsoft will number their Windows versions consistently going forward.

So we decided to ship the Windows 7 code as Windows 6.1 – which is what you will see in the actual version of the product in cmd.exe or computer properties.

In three years I can’t wait for them to release the new version, which will also be called Windows 7.

We Are All Connected

2009-10-22T13:48:11Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

John Boswell, aka Colorpulse, can keep making these songs starring Auto-Tuned scientists and I will happily keep listening to them. This one has Richard Feynman (including his bongo playing!), Bill Nye, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan.

If you want to hear more as they come out, Boswell’s set up a new site, Symphony of Science, for these songs.

Should We Really Be Fighting a Three-Front War?

2009-10-21T17:20:18Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

First, we de-planeted Pluto.

Then we bombed the moon.

Yesterday, one of the space scientists who helped find water on the moon was arrested for espionage.

This can only mean one thing: SPACE WAR. Now we can try to guess what our next target will be. Mars? That annoyingly smug Mercury? Europa?

“I wanna do a craft!”

2009-10-19T19:40:25Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

What crafter doesn’t want to hear these words from their children? Painting though is my least favorite because it involves water. Both kids really love to paint, so it’s always a special treat at our house. These are from this past week when it rained and rained and rained.

Yes, that’s paint all over Liza’s face.

You can see the potential for mess in double portions right here.

Jeff Sessions, My Pro-Rape Senator

2009-10-17T04:47:40Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Dear Senator Sessions,

I am stunned and appalled at your vote against SA 2588 to H.R. 3326, the 2010 Defense Appropriation Act. The amendment would prevent government contractors or subcontractors from receiving federal funds if they require their employees to submit to arbitration if they are sexually assaulted while on the job by other employees. In short: your vote against this measure is a vote for companies escaping culpability in rape cases. Shame on you.

This amendment was driven in part by Jamie Leigh Jones’s experiences. As a 21-year-old working for KBR/Halliburton in Iran, she claims to have been gang raped after sipping a drugged drink. Guards following KBR orders confined her to a shipping container; she was freed only after she managed to call her father, who involved Texas Representative Ted Poe. Hers was one of several rapes involving KBR personnel. KBR claims none of the raped women can sue KBR due to arbitration clauses in their contract. Even worse, KBR has continually delayed arbitration in these cases, preventing due process.

In your speech on the Senate floor, you claimed that arbitration is a fair substitute for a court case, and that it can be better and less expensive for employees. Consumer Reports, a non-partisan advocate for individuals, vehemently disagrees. As Consumer Reports points out, arbitration involves a third party selected by the corporation. No public record is kept. There is no accountability; there is no transparency. It substitutes private corporate decisions for public decisions by a jury of peers, and subverts the justice system that you, as a former U.S. Attorney, once swore to uphold.

Furthermore, you said that the Congress should not be involved in writing or re-writing contracts. This is not a re-write of contracts; this is a statement of who the U.S. Government will do business with. The Congress has the power of the checkbook, and can decide where that money goes and why. The amendment did not specify how contracts should be written; it specified that contracts should not be let to companies hiding from their employees behind the shield of arbitration to prevent rape victims from suing them. If this is untenable, then so is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has prevented the government from doing business with companies that discriminate on the basis of race or gender.

On your website, you state that, like me, you are a Christian. Christ’s concern was for the downtrodden. He broke bread with the tax collectors and the prostitutes, not the religious leaders and the politically powerful. On this issue you have sided with the corporation over the individual, with Halliburton over Jamie Leigh Jones.

In your remarks during Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, you stated that empathy was a bad thing for a judge to have. Based on your vote on this matter, I can only assume that you think empathy is a terrible thing for a Senator to have as well.

I have a two-year-old daughter. Because of your vote, I cannot imagine her working for the federal government as a contractor. Your vote signals that you accept corporations covering up rapes as a matter of course. You have two daughters; I am appalled that you are comfortable with this behavior, and can only hope that you would feel differently if it were your daughters in this situation.

As a father and as a Christian, I can only say again: you should be ashamed of your vote. It betrays the very values you claim to hold.

Sincerely,

Stephen Granade

This turned into a long letter, and was far more reasoned than I would naturally have been. My first reaction was to write a letter that read, in its entirety, “Senator Sessions: Fuck you.” That a man who has two daughters could sleep comfortably at night having said, “Hey, you got raped and your employer tried to cover it up, but that’s okay” enrages me beyond belief. With this vote, Sessions (and his compatriot Senator Shelby) have shown that they are hollow men incapable of empathizing with women.

Email to my Senators

2009-10-16T18:16:28Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I am appalled and disgusted that you voted against Senator Al Frankin’s bill to allow people to sue government contractors in the event of their rape.

This email is the first of its kind that I’ve ever sent to a government official and this email marks the promise I make that during the next election season I plan to support your challenger both vocally and monetarily.

I know Stephen has a longer political post coming over the weekend but I couldn’t not post this email that I just sent to Alabama Senators Shelby and Sessions as I am literally shaking with rage. I guess this day marks the start of my political activism. Scary thought, I know.

Liza Loves Bugs; Eli Loves Puzzles

2009-10-15T18:09:53Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Liza still loves her some bugs. These days she has her pick of them, as we’ve had so much rain that beetles and cockroaches have fled indoors to escape it. More fools they, as that puts them at Liza’s mercy. Liza finds them, picks them up, and carries them around by one of their teeny legs. She’s like a giant toddler God to these bugs. When she’s done playing with them she lets them run away, so I can only imagine the religion that has sprung up around these events.

“The God lifted me high into the air, and I heard peals of laughter like thunder!”

“You failed to sacrifice a bread crumb to Her yesterday! Be glad She did not crush your pitiable carapace!”

She found one in the kitchen this morning. All the way from our bathroom I could hear her yelling, “Buggy is running! He’s hiding from me! Come out, buggy! Come out!” A few minutes later she wandered into the bathroom. The beetle she’d found waved its legs feebly, trying desperately to pull one leg out of Liza’s grasp.

“This is buggy! He says hi!” Then she said, in a voice even more high pitched than normal, “Hi, daddy! I want to watch a show!” “Buggy wants to watch a show! He likes Dora!” she added in her normal tone of voice.

“How lucky he likes the same shows you do,” I told her.

Eli, meanwhile, is obsessed with escape-the-room games. He’s grown bored of Kingdom Hearts II: The Cut-Sceneing, so I’ve turned to free online Flash games to occupy him at night. He enjoyed titles like Little Wheel, but it’s the escape-the-room games that have captured his heart. He can’t really help with them, but he loves seeing me struggle to find the hotspots that, when clicked, will show a lever that, when pulled, reveals a substitution cipher that I then must solve.

In playing these games, I’ve filled sheet after sheet of paper with codes, ciphers, and doodlings. The other night he came up to me and said, “I have a piece of paper here. It needs to have codes on it.” So off we trundled to Jay is Games to find an escape-the-room game that wouldn’t frustrate me too much. I’m afraid if I get too stressed out I’ll only be able to calm myself by stepping on all of Liza’s bugs and hearing them pop like bubble wrap.

FlashForward Eschatology

2009-10-14T18:23:56Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

FlashForward is a new ABC show about what happens when everyone on Earth passes out for about two minutes and sees a vision of what they’ll be doing in six months. The show is most concerned with What It All Means — why did everyone get a glimpse of their future? and is that future fixed? — but I was struck by the aftershocks of the event. Since people lose consciousness, there are all kinds of terrible accidents, from drivers having wrecks to pilots augering in their 757s during landing. Days later, buildings still smolder where they were struck by news helicopters. Children re-enact the event, asking each other, “What did you see this time? What did you see?” An FBI Assistant Director eulogizes the agents who died. One character on a nearly-empty aircraft sits next to an airline exec who is there to reassure the public that flying is safe again, the punchline being that the exec is scared shitless.

While these are only minor events in the storyline, they help make the show seem more real. Watching them, I found myself thinking, this is what Left Behind should have looked like.

Left Behind tells the story of what happens when God raptures — that is, kills off and snatches away — all of the “real” Christians and also all babies and young children. It was a runaway best-seller. It was also a terrible book, both in theology and in construction. Over at Slacktivist, Fred Clark’s exegesis of the series has been running since October 2003, and it’s taking him so long to catalog all of the series’ sins that, six years later, he’s only 100 pages into book two.

FlashForward shows how shoddy the worldbuilding in Left Behind is. In FlashForward, everyone wants to know what happened. In Left Behind, they’re so incurious that they don’t even think to search the clothes of the raptured to see if, I don’t know, they’ve been turned into red dust or shrunk down or something. The book mentions wrecked planes and choked cab lines, but a day later everything seems back to normal and the planes are flying on time.

Let’s do a couple of back-of-the-envelope calculations. The Fifth National Survey of Religion and Politics pegs the U.S.’s traditional evangelical protestant population at 10%. Assume a third of that 10% agreed with LaHaye and Jenkins’s outlook and thus were raptured. The U.S. population is about 300,000,000 people, which means 10 million people in the U.S. vanished at once. The equivalent of the entire Chicago metro area is gone. Never mind the cabs, think of the chaos on streets and interstates across the country. If one in ten of those True Christians is in a car at the time, you’ve got the potential for 100,000 simultaneous wrecks. That’s nearly two months worth of U.S. auto wrecks compressed into one minute. How long would it take to clear them away?

And what about hospitals? You’ve got expectant mothers whose babies vanished as they were giving birth. What’s that going to do to the doctors and nurses who weren’t also raptured? What kind of post-traumatic stress will labor and delivery staff have? Oh, and were any of the True Christian doctors operating at the time, leaving a patient to die?

Meanwhile, all over the world, parents called out for their kids and got no response. Kindergarten teachers were suddenly facing empty classrooms. Nannies on the Upper East Side, hearing the panic spreading through New York City, looked into the strollers they were pushing and began freaking out about losing their charges.

What happens the day after everyone is raptured? When there’s no need for daycares any more? When pediatricians have no reason to go to work? When firefighters and policeman may have a literally decimated force at a time when every single one of them is needed? Left Behind has answers for none of these. In fact, it doesn’t even ask the questions.

FlashForward has a leg up on Left Behind. It’s based on a science fiction book by Robert Sawyer, and while Sawyer may not be that good at creating believable characters, he’s got that old-school SF love of delving into the consequences of unexpected events. LaHaye, meanwhile, is a minister; Jenkins, the writer of the two, churns out formulaic children’s books, mysteries, and comic strips. Neither of them seem interested in anything beyond beating their polemical views into readers’ heads. Their science fiction begins and ends with their Biblical prophesies, which they assembled from disparate scraps of the Bible like a ransom note from newspapers.

When you think about it, the Rapture as described in Left Behind would be a terrible, bone-chilling event. The ramifications are huge. Yet Left Behind doesn’t pause to acknowledge it. When your novel can’t even match the tiny amounts of worldbuilding that can be squeezed into a 42-minute TV show, you’re doing it wrong.

Birthday Week was a WIN! Do I have to wait a year for another?

2009-10-13T17:36:59Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

There are not enough words to describe the awesomeness of my trip to Atlanta to see U2 and visit with friends. The show was full of awesome. A friend of a friend said that Bono was the best worship leader that she’d ever had and I’ll have to second that. I think the show was specially tailored to show off their “We’re all about that love and peace business.” side. Here’s the set list:
Breathe
Put on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stand By Me
Stuck in the Moment (acoustic)
No Line on the Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
End of the World
The Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (very wacky remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Amazing Grace
Where the Streets Have No Name
Ultaviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

I loved every minute of the show but I was/am a bit taken aback that my favorite song of the show was “Ultraviolet.” It’s never been a particular favorite of mine but the song combined with the light show and the smoke was really eerie, interesting and moving. My other highlights of the show was Danielle nearly pinching my arm off during the remix of “Crazy Tonight” and her leaning over to tell me that the name of the song “MLK” was “MLK” and then my reply that I knew that because I’ve been singing it to my children at bedtime for the past five years and then the lady behind me giving me a funny look because of it. And the dancing and the screaming of the “Woo!” There was much “Woo!” screaming. I had a blast.

Danielle and Kat and I also visit Ikea on Tuesday where I proceeded to buy the place out. I love me some Ikea. If my house ever burns down and I have to start over from scratch, I’m doing everything in Ikea because it’s so cool.

While Mom was here this past weekend, we redid Liza’s room with some of Ikea purchases. She’s now in the big girl bed and doing really well with it.

More pictures to come once we get the new light fixture hung.

I also got a ton of books as birthday gifts:

All of them are awesome! Thanks to everyone who bought me a new book! It’s gonna take me a while to get through them all but I’m so excited about each and every one. The bonus awesome goes to Fahmida for the book she made of our trip to Japan. It’s made me so homesick to go back.

And lastly, if you’ve made it this far you deserve a cute kid photo:

They thought they were hiding in the shower. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that if they are shrieking at the top of their lungs, they are pretty easy to find.

Running Man

2009-10-11T02:40:18Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I’m working on a post comparing the TV show FlashForward to the Left Behind series, but it’s taking a while. To keep you entertained in the meantime, I give you Canabalt. It’s a minimalist game created for the Experimental Gameplay Project, whose theme in August was “Bare Minimum”. You play a man running to escape a city being destroyed by giant robots. There’s only one button: jump. There’s only six colors.

I can’t stop playing it.

In the last few weeks Eli and I have been playing a lot of Flash-based games in the evening. I’ll have to see what he thinks of this one.

The Most Widespread Internet Memes

2009-10-09T23:53:39Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

What do you think are the most widespread Internet memes? Bonus points if you explain why.

Misty Says “Woo!” Again

2009-10-06T13:16:19Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

It’s a light posting week for us, seeing as how Misty’s gone to Atlanta to say “Woo!” at U2 in the Georgia Dome. I’m taking care of Eli and Liza, which is fun right up to the point when it isn’t any more. Given that Eli is living up to his reputation of petri dish for diseases of the under-six set and has brought home a cold, I won’t really have time to post.

Of course, having said that, prepare for another Hobbit 419 or something.

The More I Think About This Song, The More It Weirds Me Out

2009-10-05T21:28:05Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

“I Will Possess Your Heart”, by Death Cab for Cutie: is it a creepy song about a stalker, or is it the creepiest such song?

As with “Every Breath You Take”, I expect it’s only a matter of time before someone plays this at their wedding.

Craft Update

2009-10-03T21:27:11Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I started this Teresa Wentzler before Liza was born. I stopped to cross stitch something for Liza’s room and then just never picked this piece back up. After I finished the lighthouses, I asked the Craft Night Ladies what I should work on next and they all unanimously said, “THAT!” when I showed it to them. I’ve nearly got the main panel completed and will start on the border for it and then there’s another huge section of text and more border after that. I don’t see it being completed anytime soon and I’m likely to put it down and work on something else for a while to take a break. But for now it’s pretty satisfying.

This past summer I started an art journal and I’ve worked in it as I’ve had ideas and wanted to try different things. This is my latest page from this week. I always think the one I just finished is my favorite and this one is no exception. I’m sure I’ll love the next one just as much.

I bought new lampshades because the old ones were so bent and mangled that it was starting to be embarrassing. I was just going to throw the old shades away but decided to see what the kids would do if I let them play. They spent a solid 30 minutes walking around like this and all they did was cackle like fiends and run into things. And I wonder how the lampshades got bent in the first place?

I traded my friend Janelle a notebook for these awesome slippers. Liza walks around saying, “Oink!” endlessly.

Speaking of notebooks, I have 12 to the point where I can take photos and start posting them. I’m hoping to get that done this week after I return from Atlanta and seeing U2.

Yeah, I said it. U2 for my birthday.

It’s the second time I’ve gotten to see U2 and both times it’s been in October. So I’m a lucky girl. Doubly lucky because Stephen is taking off of work to stay home with the kids while I go hang out with friends and go to the concert. I’ll have much to post about when I get back.

I Never Knew Carl Sagan

2009-09-30T01:42:03Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I never really noticed Carl Sagan until after his death. Part of that was due to how I backed slowly into science. My childhood may have been filled with Asimov’s books and the spectacles of Star Wars and Star Trek, but I hadn’t given much thought to becoming an honest-to-goodness scientist. In high school, after visiting our school’s guidance counselor, I told a friend, “I looked at the list of jobs and aerospace engineer sounded cool.” He looked at me and said, “Huh, I’d have thought you were more interested in something fundamental like physics.” Andrew was right, and though I doubt he even remembers telling me that, his words were what set me on my science path, not the writing or TV appearances of the man in the turtleneck and buff jacket.

I didn’t watch Cosmos. I didn’t read The Demon-Haunted World or even Contact. I knew of him, of course, but didn’t pay much attention to him. In 1996, when I heard he’d died, I was sad for those I knew whose lives he’d touched.

As the years have passed, though, I’ve become a belated fan. As I’ve dabbled more and more with popularizing aspects of science, I’ve come to appreciate his uncanny knack for explaining the wonder of science. As I have become more enamored of the wonder of science, I’ve fallen in love with how Sagan made even the most complex and gigantic concepts understandable.

So when I saw the above video last week, I stared raptly at it and played it over and over. The autotuning of Sagan is geeky and awkward, and emphasizes how he could sound like Kermit the Frog, and yet it captures his enthusiasm, his wonder, and his optimism. And that’s a damn fine thing.

Visualizing Music

2009-09-29T04:05:54Z

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

How do you visualize music? Can you turn an auditory experience into a visual one? Scores are one way of doing just that.

While a score requires training to read fully, you can follow along when it’s paired with the music. That was part of the allure of early computer music programs like the Music Construction Set.

In terms of representing music visually, many people default to the conventions of a score: higher pitches are higher on the paper, with each instrument getting its own line. Even projects like A Bicycle Built for Two Thousand (which is possibly the creepiest rendition of “Daisy Bell” ever) follow that convention.

Scores represent each note individually, but they don’t capture the timbre of the separate instruments. Instead, they merely name what instruments are to be played, with similar instruments’ staves grouped together. Anita Lillie created visual representations that are like a score, but with timbre to color, producing some neat videos in the process.

What if we move away from trying to capture the individual notes and instead try to represent larger components of a song? The band Pomplamoose videotapes themselves recording their multitracked songs and assembles the footage into a single video. The result is a visual representation of the song’s layers. For instance, you see Nataly Dawn acting as her own backup singers. Their visual representation is organized around each track in a song.

Lasse Gjertsen’s “Amateur” is similar in spirit, with one notable exception: he videotaped himself playing each drum hit and piano note separately, then sliced that video up and combined it into a new song. It’s a hybrid between the traditional score and what Pomplamoose is doing, since Gjertsen’s video is presenting each individual note or event as it happens, but constructed from separate events instead of a continuous performance.

Then there’s Kutiman. For “Thru You”, he assembled his songs from pre-existing YouTube clips rather than composing a song and then videotaping himself or others playing it. The separate video clips are a visual representation of the building blocks he’s used to create his bricolage.

Finally, consider Girl Talk’s mashup album “Feed The Animals”. Gregg Gillis used samples like instruments, layering them on top of each other to create a new composition. Soon after the album’s release, fans created music videos compiled from those of Gillis’s source samples.

Given my love of visual representation, it’s no surprise that this topic fascinates me. Part of it is the whole “dancing about architecture” problem: it’s hard to translate an experience from one sense to another. That’s why, when it’s done well, I find it especially rewarding.