general

Matthew Yglesias: Kosovo and the Rise of the Humanitarian Hawks

Yglesias cautiously questions the Clinton legacy of the "good war" in the former Yugoslavia, now that Kosovo has declared independence and more ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma, etc, there appears imminent. Bombing Belgrade was bitterly opposed by Congressional Republicans, who then turned around and used it as grounds--following the supposed moral authority of the liberal hawks--for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq for "humanitarian" reasons. In so many words, Yglesias suggests the old UN model of diplomacy and international peacekeeping forces was a better one for regional conflicts than a unilateral rain of death from the skies.

From Bennett at Double Happiness:

Borna and I were in some sort of museum at a kiosk that featured the works of Jeff Sisson. It was a large screen w/ mouse interaction, containing a collection of Rock Band-esque band/karaoke projects, also one Photoshop filter style manipulation of faces that could be rotated, swirled, etc. and would transform into other faces as they did so. Then we came upon a “cookie making” piece, that had the background of a dough-colored surface, and one could click on various spices and sprinkle them on, add other ingredients - this had been the piece that Jeff had “gotten famous for,” we knew. Jeff came by and said “oh have you checked out the camera function? thats what really makes this piece good.” I clicked the camera icon and nothing happened - Jeff realized the machine must be broken, and reached down under to dislodge something that was stuck. The bottom of the kiosk had a small drawer that was jammed with cookies that were “printed out” based on the image you had made on the screen, but they had gotten stuck. He pulled a few and then handed me mine. There was a condom on it.

Darwin Chamber "Dubmarine" [YouTube]

Drexciya interview: [YouTube]
This was James Stinson's only radio interview, given on Detroit radio a few months before he died in 2002.
A fan posted the 27 minute audio and added visuals for YouTube.
Stinson's writing partner Gerald Donald is alive and still an active musician--his comings and goings are documented at the Drexciya Research Lab blog.
Eventually Stinson/Donald will be recognized as important American musicians working outside the academy (along with Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Frank Zappa...)
The fact that they are "all electronic" will be a stumbling block in our granola music culture.
Stinson talks like the classic outsider in the interview. He speaks of isolating himself from the influence of other people's music, staying in his studio working, exploring inner space (as opposed to Sun Ra's outer). He also makes the classic outsider dodge of not describing the music or his intentions for it. People will always interpret it their own way, the music speaks for itself, etc.
Yet he is not the Howard Finster of music. The structures are quite sophisticated in their spare minimalism, as is the sound pallette.
"Undersea Disturbances" (which you hear in the background about halfway through the YouTube clip) could be Debussy with a thwacking beat.

"Fratres" by Arvo Pärt

Drony, haunting medieval-modern classic played with two SID chips. About 10 minutes--very nicely done. There is a version for a .sid file player but I just downloaded the .mp3. The arrangement is by Linus Åkesson. The organ sounds produced by the chip make the piece reminiscent of early Terry Riley.
Thanks to drx from Bodenstandig 2000 for mentioning this.