Unusual Credits

I was watching The Constant Gardener last night, and I noticed at the very very end of the movie, the following text among the credits:

It says, "Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank god, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world, but I can tell you this, as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, i came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard. -- John Le Carre".

Not something you see every day in movie credits.

Edwards Campaign Using Eventful Demand

Another milestone in Eventful's history:

More details at eventful.com/johnedwards.

The Birotron and other delights

New reading material this past weekend included the new issue of The Believer magazine. The new issue of The Believer happens to be the music issue -- meaning it comes with a CD. It's great!

I devour each issue of this magazine and eagerly look forward to the next. If only it came more often. Great interviews with artists, filmmakers, musicians. Insightful pieces on some obscure cultural phenomenon or geopolitical issue. Great magazine.

I was thinking of Bruce Sterling when I was reading the article about the Birotron, quite possibly the rarest electronic musical instrument ever manufactured. If you've heard of the Mellotron, the Birotron was a competitor, made in the 70s out of nineteen (19) 8-track tape players all linked together. An amazing hack, it got some fame in the 70s from Rick Wakeman, who used it on several Yes albums and in live concerts. (More info on the Birotron is available here.)

Bruce Sterling has for many years been archiving and commenting upon what he calls "dead media" -- old devices, obsolete technologies. Coincidentally, he just blogged about dead media this past week, specifically, obsolete electronic instruments. He points to a site that lists a lot of electronic stuff. But no Birotron!

It's that rare.

Another fantastic story in the current Believer is the tale of an obsessed musical reporter who attempts to track down a singer/songwriter named Bill Fox who gave up performing in 1998. It's quite a story.

Sopranos ending

Heck, I've never even seen an episode of The Sopranos, ever, but I found this obsessed tv-watcher's analysis of the final scene really fun to read: http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/1406/1/.

Unnecessarily Loud

Short video that succinctly shows what's happened to many present-day CDs: they've become so loud, they lose a lot of the richness and acoustic fidelity of the original recording.

The example used in the video is from a clear, crisp 1980s Paul McCartney recording, that the narrator then distorts by showing what happens when the recording is made "loud". It's a little ironic that McCartney's latest disc, Memory Almost Full, feels very distorted when you listen to it. It feels like it's been recorded "loud" just like the video points out. (Of course, one could argue The Beatles "pioneered" this effect with their single, Revolution.)

Wait, I've Seen a Bunch of These

Movies.com has a feature up called "The 25 Best Movies You've Never Seen". I just went through the list and noticed I've seen 16 of them. At least, there are 16 that I remember seeing. How many you have you seen?