Study on Drumming Error Patterns

From the Harvard Gazette. Rhythm pulses inside the brain of a Ghanaian drummer, sitting in a physics laboratory in Gottingen, Germany. His hands caress the skin of a bongo drum, guided by the metronome’s tick through his headphones. He plays for five minutes, filling the sterile lab environment with staccato sounds, as a team of physicists records him, searching for a pattern. But the researchers aren’t interested in what he does correctly — they are listening for his errors. Though the drummer is a professional, like all humans, his rhythm is imperfect. Each time his hand hits the drum, his beat falls ahead or behind the metronome by 10 to 20 milliseconds. On average, he anticipates the beat, and plays ahead of it, 16 milliseconds ahead — less than the time it takes a person to blink, or a dragonfly to flap its wings. What the physicists want to know is: Are these errors random, or correlated in a way that can be expressed by a mathematical law? ... Check it out HERE.

Coffee Ad from England in 1650

...and a nice analysis of it HERE.

LA Times video profile of a foley artist

Check it out HERE (after the commercial jump).

Wonderful Beethoven Flashmob

Star Wars Humor

_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="">

Death of snake handling preacher shines light on lethal Appalachian tradition

CNN 09:19 PM ET Death of snake handling preacher shines light on lethal Appalachian tradition By Julia Duin, Special to CNN (CNN) – Mack Wolford, one of the most famous Pentecostal serpent handlers in Appalachia, was laid to rest Saturday at a low-key service at his West Virginia church a week after succumbing to a snake bite that made headlines across the nation. Several dozen family, friends and members of Wolford's House of the Lord Jesus church in tiny Matoaka filled the simple hall for the service, which lasted slightly more than an hour. At the request of pastor's widow, Fran Wolford, media were forbidden inside the building. Wolford's own dad was a serpent handler who died from a snake bite in 1983. Mack Wolford, who was 44, was bitten by his yellow timber rattlesnake at an evangelistic event in a state park about 80 miles west of Bluefield, in West Virginia’s isolated southern tip. BR> He enjoyed handling snakes during worship services, but it’s a tradition that has killed about 100 practitioners since it started in the east Tennessee hills in 1909. In recent years, Wolford feared the tradition was in danger of dying for lack of interest among people in their 20s and 30s. It’s why he drove to small, out-of-the-way churches around Appalachia to encourage those who handle snakes to keep the tradition alive. “I promised the Lord I’d do everything in my power to keep the faith going,” Wolford said last fall in an interview I conducted with him for the Washington Post Sunday magazine. “I spend a lot of time going a lot of places that handle serpents to keep them motivated. I’m trying to get anybody I can get.” He hadn’t much hope for churches in West Virginia, where serpent handling is legal. Some surrounding states, including Tennessee and North Carolina, have outlawed it. He had his eyes on a Baptist church near Marion, North Carolina, where, he said, “there’s been crowds coming” and its leaders wanted to introduce serpent handling, the law be damned. “I’m getting the faith started in other states, where I am seeing a positive turnout,” he said. “Remember, back in the Bible, it was the miracles that drew people to Christ.” Wolford wanted to travel to the radical edges of Christianity, where life and death gazed at him every time he walked into a church and picked up a snake. That’s what drew the crowds and the media; that’s what gives a preacher from the middle of nowhere the platform to offer the gospel to people who would never otherwise listen. “Mack was one of the hopes for a revival of the tradition,” said Ralph Hood, a University of Tennessee professor who’s written two books on snake handlers and is probably the foremost academic expert on their culture. “However, I am sure others will emerge, as well.” Indeed, others are emerging, including a growing group of 20-somethings clustered around churches in La Follette, Tennessee, and Middlesboro, Kentucky. Their individual Facebook pages show photos of poisonous snakes and “serpent handling” appears on their “activities and interests” lists. Pentecostal serpent handlers - they use "serpent" over "snake" out of deference to the Bible - are known for collecting dozens of snakes expressly for church services. At church, they’re also known to ingest a mixture of strychnine - a highly toxic powder often used as a pesticide - and water, often from a Mason jar. These same believers will bring Coke bottles with oil-soaked wicks to the church so they can hold flames to their skin. Key to understanding this culture are a pair of verses from the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mainstream Christians - Pentecostals included - do not believe Mark 16:17-18 means that Christians should seek out poisonous snakes or ingest poisonous substances. But experts say that several thousand people – exact numbers are hard to come by – in six Appalachian states read the verse differently. Known as “signs following” Pentecostals, they see a world at war with evil powers and believe it’s a Christian’s duty to take on the devil by engaging in the “signs.” Thus, a typical service in one of their churches will also include prayers for healing and speaking in tongues. Read the full post HERE.

Zar Ritual in Egypt

Scooby Doo Meets Zombie Trope

Velma looks hot and Scooby looks kinda badass.

Spike Lee's Dolly Shot Montage

I prefer to think of them as "moving sidewalk" shots. The Keital-Bicycle one at 1:18 is probably my favorite, especially in the context of the movie. (Keital, a tough NY detective, is trying to help the kid on the bicycle, who shot a neighborhood thug to death. As Keital suggests a story to commit to testimony that would get the boy off the hook, the imaginary scene plays out with Keital as floating narrator; seriously badass.) Another top clip is the stoned Leguizamo clip from Summer of Sam; the woman in the nightclub scene (from The 25th Hour) is fantastic as well.

Keith Jarrett's rant against losing the moment to gadgets

A neat post from Fast Company. Check it out HERE.

The Existentialist Despair of Henri the Cat

The French really know how to tap into the emptiness of a life without meaning and the ironic burden that awareness brings to the aimless nihility of tedium.

Photoshopping (Downsizing) Venus

An interesting art exhibit that remakes Venus according to "modern" standards of beauty. You can browse it HERE.

Music in Nursing Home

Scorsese on Taxi Driver

Watched this film again recently and really appreciate what a great film it is. Martin Scorsese has some great insights in this interview:







"Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere...in bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man... "

More Bad Album covers

A nice selection at Tastebuds; check them out HERE.