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 [...]
Entries from April 2009
Working in the Fair Use Lab
0 April 19, 2023 at 7:40pm by Mark Willis
Café Mouffe: Mary Mary & Stevie Wonder
0 April 10, 2023 at 6:00pm 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 [...]
Café Mouffe · poetry Add Your Comment
The Salamander’s Safety Patrol
0 April 6, 2023 at 7:44pm 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 [...]
“It’s Not Important That I’m Catherine Deneuve”
2 April 5, 2023 at 7:20am 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!
Playing by Ear Add Your Comment
Would Catherine Deneuve Read To My Tomatoes?
0 April 5, 2023 at 7:05am 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 [...]
Playing by Ear Add Your Comment
Café Mouffe: Mike Ladd & Grand Pianoramax Feat
0 April 3, 2023 at 6:00pm 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 [...]
Whatever Happened to Subminimalism In B-Flat?
0 April 1, 2023 at 7:07am 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 [...]