Entries from April 2009

Working in the Fair Use Lab

Comments   0   Date Arrow  April 19, 2023 at 7:40pm   User  by Mark Willis

It may be a while before you find the flaneur out on the street – unless it’s in Cambridge next weekend during the Media in Transition 6 conference at M.I.T. Until then, look for me in the Fair Use Lab, where I’m working on my MiT6 presentation, Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab. If you [...]

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Café Mouffe: Mary Mary & Stevie Wonder

Comments   0   Date Arrow  April 10, 2023 at 6:00pm   User  by Mark Willis

An NPR Music profile of the gospel sister act known as Mary Mary sent me searching for an opportunity to bring them to Café Mouffe. Along the way I found their performance of Higher Ground honoring Stevie Wonder at the White House last February. I couldn’t find clips then, but they’re out there in the [...]

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The Salamander’s Safety Patrol

Comments   0   Date Arrow  April 6, 2023 at 7:44pm   User  by Mark Willis

A spotted salamander prepares to cross the road in New Haven, Vt., on Sunday, March 22. [Source: AP/NPR]
What was it Loudon Wainwright sang? “You got your dead cat and you got your dead dog. On a moonlight night you got your dead toad-frog.” Well, not in Vermont, if some forward-thinking batrachian-lovers can help it. Now [...]

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“It’s Not Important That I’m Catherine Deneuve”

Comments   2   Date Arrow  April 5, 2023 at 7:20am   User  by Mark Willis

I couldn’t find the bath oil ad that inspired Tom Wolfe, but this one for Chanel No. 5 gives you a sense of the voice I want for my speech synthesizer. Hello, Catherine – I’m putting it out there in the universe!

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Would Catherine Deneuve Read To My Tomatoes?

Comments   0   Date Arrow  April 5, 2023 at 7:05am   User  by Mark Willis

Faithful readers of this blog  know that I read by listening. The voice I hear most often, day in and day out, is a machine voice known as Puzzled Paul. My life’s ambition is having a voice on my speech synthesizer that purrs like Catherine Deneuve selling the proverbial bath oil. I say “proverbial” to [...]

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Café Mouffe: Mike Ladd & Grand Pianoramax Feat

Comments   0   Date Arrow  April 3, 2023 at 6:00pm   User  by Mark Willis

I’m no super-hero, but I’ve accumulated a few arch-enemies along the way. They aren’t likely to set foot in the Mouffe while spoken word artist Mike Ladd does his thing. Ladd freestyles with Grand Pianoramax Feat, led by Swiss keyboardist Leo Tardin, on Showdown and Blue Gold. Both cuts were recorded at the Jazzfestival Schaffhausen [...]

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Whatever Happened to Subminimalism In B-Flat?

Comments   0   Date Arrow  April 1, 2023 at 7:07am   User  by Mark Willis

[It’s time for one of those brilliant legacy look-backs for which NPR is so well-tuned. This was first posted here  last April.]
The postmodern acumen of this NPR music review is too deep to be buried in the April Fool’s archive. The author and sensitive New Age guy writing here is one Bryce Cobham-Dowling. Who he?
“For [...]

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