Tuesday, February 24, 2009

An early atonal telephone

Party Line

Muzak may have declared bankruptcy but you can make your own touch tone music while you're on hold. Michael Vincent has Phone Songs on his site along with a passable version of Happy Birthday. DialSongs.com has more songs and samples to play. If you want to create your own music DialABC has a chart matching musical notes to the Dual Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF) system that the touch tone system uses. DialABC also has a page where you can generate DTMF tones by entering touch tone phone number sequences. Amongst the classic touch tone songs available online is WMFU's posting of the Touch Tone Surfers cover of Devo's "Jocko Homo". And amongst the classical is Groovy Grooves Touchtone Symphony, "Mozart's Turkish Rondo for Two Office Phones and Two Cellular Phones".

Phone Songs

Phone Songs: Happy Birthday

DialSongs.com

DialABC: DTMF musical notes

DialABC: DTMF sound clip generator

WFMU: Touch Tone Surfers "Jocko Homo"

Groovy Grooves: Touchtone Symphony

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I for one welcome our new Deer Butt Alien Overlords

"Fine art Deer Butt alien heads"

They say these folk art extraterrestrials are examples of southern redneck art, but somehow I suspect they have a Wisconsin origin. Don Burleson at dba-oracle has authoritative instructions on how to create your own which even venerable Taxideterminist School commentators like the Weasel Times and Stoat Intelligencer took notice of. Discriminating collectors can even find various exemplars of butt and rump art on eBay these days. Me, I prefer the understated elegance and je ne sais quoi of Travis Carter's Redneck Deer Butt Doe Bell.

Fine art Deer Butt alien heads

Weasel Times and Stoat Intelligencer

Redneck Deer Butt Doe Bell

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Deja los buenos tiempos desenrollar

Mexican Bomb Hammer Party

It's early February and time for celebration in the town of San Juan de la Vega, Mexico. To celebrate, strap explosives to the business end of a long hammer and bang it hard on the ground. That's the basic idea of this several centuries old event. Thousands attend and dozens are injured (50 minor wounds in 2008). Check out the Mexican Bomb Hammer Party video on YouTube. Explosives and a hammer? What can go wrong? Well, dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel used to test the efficacy of various formulations of nitroglycerin by placing a drop on an anvil & hitting it with a sledgehammer. While testing a particularly virulent batch his brother was killed and Alfred went into seclusion for several years. His grief over this incident and press depictions of him as a merchant of death led him to create the Nobel Prize. If you want the American version of a Mexican Bomb Hammer Party try the July 4th Celebration & Anvil Shoot at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee. Anvil tossing is actually an old American tradition. If you want a preview check the two sample videos linked below.

Mexican Bomb Hammer Party

July 4th Celebration & Anvil Shoot

Anvil Blast

Anvil launching gone wrong