Halber Mensch (A.K.A.- 1/2 Mensch) (1986) by Sogo Ishii & Einstürzende Neubauten

"Halber Mensch" (aka "1/2 Mensch") is a 1986 film by Japanese director Sogo Ishii with German band Einstürzende Neubauten. It was originally released on VHS, and re-released on DVD in 2005. The film's title comes from the album of the same name.

Einstürzende Neubauten were in their creative prime when punk film pioneer

Sohgo Ishii shot this 58-minute document in Tokyo during the band's world

tour in 1985.

Set mostly in a condemned factory/junkpile (the former Nakamatsu Ironworks),

the film features a tormental troupe of butoh dancers, fire, FM Einheit repairing

his shoe, micro photography, industrial textures, live footage from their Korakuen

Hall arena shows, one of their guerilla street actions, lots of beautiful destruction

and amazing music.

It's extremely, lyrically visual, perhaps because Ishii didn't feel the need to

hang everything on some skimpy plot this time and could just let his camera do the talking.

[01]. Armenia

[02]. Sehnsucht

[03]. Letztes biest

[04]. Abfackeln

[05]. Zerstorte Zelle

[06]. Halber Mensch

[07]. Z.N.S.

[08]. Die Zeichnungen des Patienten

[09]. Der Tod ist ein Dandy

[10]. Schaben

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halber_Mensch_(film) 

Peter Gabriel- Digging in the Dirt (1992) music video by John Downer

"Digging in the Dirt" is a 1992 song by British musician Peter Gabriel. It was the first single taken from his sixth studio album, Us. The song was only a minor hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it topped both the Billboard Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts. The song was moderately successful on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #24.

The music video for the single was directed by John Downer and utilised stop-motion animation, a technique used in the videos for Gabriel's earlier hits "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time". The work was painstaking, especially for Gabriel himself who was required to lie still for hours at a time over the course of several days. The video won a Grammy award in 1993 in the Best Short-Form Video category.

The video is largely an exploration of the issues in his personal life at the time- the end of his relationship with Rosanna Arquette, his desire to reconnect with his daughter and even the self healing he was looking for in therapy.

In the video, Gabriel is displayed in a variety of disturbing imagery- including being buried alive, consumed by an overgrowth of foliage (thanks to a gruelling stop-motion process) and flying into a rage while trying to swat a fly. This time, Gabriel returned to stop motion and claymation- that had served him so well in the 1980s, forgoing (the then primitive and time-consuming) computer graphics used in "Steam".

From the onset, the word "help" forms in the grass while dark imagery plays. Gabriel eerily morphs into a skeleton while at the same time trying to excavate himself. Ultimately, the viewers are left with a gleam of hope as "help" morphs into "heal" after Gabriel symbolically rises from the soil, clad in white.

The Secret World Live version of the song is far more intense than the studio version. This is due to a chaotic blend of disturbingly high pitched distorted guitar (by guitarist David Rhodes), as well as occasional jarring synth bass stabs (Tony Levin) and an expansive performance by Manu Katché on the drums. The stage craft for the song is considered a highlight of the show. Gabriel wore a special "helmet" with a video camera attached in an antennae-like way, showing in great detail his facial expressions, while moving in time with the music. This is used to create a particularly grotesque image of Gabriel, most prominent during the "freak-out" sequence in which the camera is graphically pointed down Gabriel's throat.

Lyrics:
Something in me, dark and sticky
All the time it's getting strong
No way of dealing with this feeling
Can't go on like this too long

[Chorus:]
This time you've gone too far [x3]
I told you [x4]
This time you've gone too far [x3]
I told you [x4]

Don't talk back
Just drive the car
Shut your mouth
I know what you are
Don't say nothing
Keep your hands on the wheel
Don't turn around
This is for real
Digging in the dirt
Stay with me, I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
Open up the places I got hurt

The more I look, the more I find
As I close on in, I get so blind
I feel it in my head, I feel it in my toes
I feel it in my sex, that's the place it goes

[Chorus]

I'm digging in the dirt
Stay with me I need support
I'm digging in the dirt
To find the places I got hurt
To open up the places I got hurt

Digging in the dirt
To find the places we got hurt




Below is the Digging in the Dirt video, the live concert footage from the Secret World Live DVD, and The Making of Digging in the Dirt music video. Enjoy!

"Daisy Bell" (1961) by John Kelly, Carol Lockbaum, and Max Mathews for IBM

"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. In 1961, the IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing, singing the song Daisy Bell. Vocals were programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum and the accompaniment was programmed by Max Mathews. This performance was the inspiration for a similar scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Below the pictures there is a video clip you can play with the audio recording. Enjoy.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do
I'm half crazy all for the love of you
It won't be a stylish marriage
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two.

PHOTO #1: IBM 7094 Emergency Power Off Switch
PHOTO #2: IBM 7094 with operator, John Szallasi
PHOTO #3: IBM 7094 tape room
PHOTO #4: IBM 7094 console
PHOTO #5: Bob Sparks with IBM 7094
PHOTOS #6-10: Various Pictures of the IBM 7094

Sentimental Punk (1979) by Kurt Kren

"It was in San Francisco at a punk festival. I was already high and the air was so thick in the rooms that you could cut it with a knife. I had a photograph camera with me; I stood in a corner of the entrance hall and took 36 pictures on slide film. At home I put the slides into a slide projector. I took out the lens and filmed the slides by filming directly from the projector - using single frames according to a certain plan. "
-Kurt Kren

Kurt Kren (September 20, 1929 - died in Vienna on June 23, 1998) was an Austrian avant garde filmmaker. He is best known for his involvement with the Vienna Aktionists and the group of films that resulted.

Kurt Kren was born in 1929 in Vienna, Austria to a family of a Jewish father (a bank employee) and German mother. From 1939 till the end of World War II Kren lived in Rotterdam, where he was sent with one of the Children's Transports. In 1947 Kren returned to Vienna, and his father provided him a job at the National Bank.

He began a film career in the early 1950s creating experimental short 8mm films. In 1957 he moved to the 16mm format.

In 1966, Kren participated in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London. In 1968 he visited the USA for the first time, showing his films in New York and St. Louis. After a participation in a happening "Kunst und Revolution" ("Art and Revolution") at the University of Vienna in 1968, Kren's films were confiscated and he was fired from the National Bank.

Kren participated in 1970 in the International Underground Film Festival (London, UK) and 1971 in the Cannes Film Festival. He moved to Cologne, Germany for five years.

Retrospective screenings took place in 1976 in National Film Theatre, London, 1978 in New York, 1979 in Museum of Modern Art, New York.

From 1978 until 1989 Kurt Kren lived in the USA, sometimes just in a car, traveling, making presentations and lectures at universities and film schools.

From 1983 until 1989 Kren did work as a security officer at the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, USA).

Kren returned to his native Vienna in 1989. In the 1990s his works were presented worldwide, also by the major museums and cinematheques. He was a co-founder of the Vienna Institute of Direct Art and the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative.

Kurt Kren died from pneumonia in Vienna, Austria in 1998.

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Kren

The Legend of Jason Becker - Documentaries, Performances, and Television News Clips

Inspirational documentary about guitar prodigy Jason Becker. Near the end there is a segment at Kennedy High School where Jason performs Yngwie Malmsteen's Black Star with his band at a talent show. The performance is nothing short of spectacular.

Also included is a collection of performances and TV news clips.

Jason Becker (born July 22, 1969) is an American neo-classical metal guitarist and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Mike Varney-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988. Cacophony broke up in 1989 and Becker began doing solo work, having released his first album Perpetual Burn in 1988. He later joined David Lee Roth's band and recorded one album with him. However, Becker's success was hampered by his then-diagnosed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and was given three to five years to live. In 1996, Becker eventually lost the ability to speak and now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Despite his disability, he continues composing by using a computer.

At the age of 20, he joined David Lee Roth's band, replacing Steve Vai, who went on to join Whitesnake. While recording the A Little Ain't Enough album in 1989, and preparing for the subsequent tour, Becker began to feel what he called a "lazy limp" on his left leg. He was soon diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and given three to five years to live. He could barely finish the recording, using low-gauge (thin) guitar strings and other techniques, which would make it easier to play with his weakening hands. Although he managed to finish the album, which was released in 1991, he did not join the supporting tour due to his inability to perform on stage; former Lizzy Borden guitarist Joe Holmes took Becker's place on tour.

Due to his illness, he eventually lost the ability to speak and now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Although his ALS gradually robbed him of his ability to play guitar, to walk, and eventually even to speak, he still remains mentally sharp and, with the aid of a computer, continues composing. In the back of the Perspective CD case, Becker states "I have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It has crippled my body and speech, but not my mind." His medical condition has remained stable since 1997. In 2003, Jason posted on his website that he was feeling better and had gained some weight, while the folder for his 2008 album Collection also mentions an upcoming book.

In 1996 Becker released an album entitled Perspective, an instrumental album composed by him (with the exception of Bob Dylan's song "Meet Me in the Morning"). The writing of the music had been started before ALS completely crippled his abilities. By using guitar and later, when he was unable to use both hands, a keyboard, he continued to compose while his disease worsened. However, when Becker could no longer physically play even a keyboard, his friend and music producer Mike Bemesderfer helped him with a music-composing computer program which could read the movements of his head and eyes enabling Becker to continue to compose after he lost control of his entire body.

Several years later Becker released Raspberry Jams (1999) and Blackberry Jams (2003), the first contained various unreleased demo-tracks and the latter contained demo-tracks and alternate versions of songs that were later reworked and published into other albums.

Two tribute albums to Jason Becker have been issued. Respectively entitled Warmth in the Wilderness I and Warmth in the Wilderness II, they feature guitarists such as Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Joe Becker, Rusty Cooley, and Mattias Eklundh. The album profits were sent to Becker to help him with his medical finances.

On November 4, 2008, Shrapnel Records released a new Jason Becker album entitled Collection. The album includes three new songs in addition to some older recordings (some never before released) and features Marty Friedman, Greg Howe, Joe Satriani, Michael Lee Firkins, Steve Vai, and Steve Hunter.
In 2008 Paradise Guitars worked with Jason to design a Jason Becker signature guitar. The design is based on the Peavey with colored number fret inlays. Features include a genuine aldermaple neck with steel 2-way truss rod, maple 16" radius fingerboard, 24 jumbo thin frets with colored number fret marker inlays, black Floyd Rose Pro Style floating Tremolo with Floyd Rose Tremolo stop, Sperzel red satin tuners, 14 degree tilt-back headstock with black Paradise logo and matching tremolo and electronics plates. The pickups are DiMarzio pickups; a P.A.F. body, Pro-Custom in the neck colored yellow and red, a DP116 HS-2 in the neck colored green, and a Tone Zone-Custom in the bridge colored pink and blue. These colored pickups compliment the colored inlays and seem to give the guitar a rainbow effect. There is also a red 5-way switch and purple 1-11 volume knob.

Information on Jason's latest projects and about ordering his CD's can be found on his website.
References: http://jasonbeckerguitar.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Becker

"Au Clair de la Lune" and other early recordings (1860) recorded by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville

This is the first sound ever recorded, by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a French printer and bookseller who lived in Paris. He invented the earliest known sound recording device, the "phonautograph", which was patented on 25 March 1857, as French patent #17,897/31,470.
In 1860, before Edison's wax cylinder experiments. Ironically, the "phonautograph" was designed only to record sounds, not to play them back.
In 2008, American audio historians played back phonautograph recordings as sound for the first time. The team accessed Leon Scott's phonautograph papers, which were stored in France's patent office and the Académie des Sciences. They then optically scanned the etched paper recordings into a computer program developed a few years earlier for the Library of Congress. The sound waves on the paper were then translated by the computer into audible sounds. One recording, created on April 9, 1860, was revealed to be a 10-second recording (of low fidelity but recognizable) of the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune". While it was initially believed to be the voice of a woman or adolescent, further research in 2009 suggested the playback speed had been too high and that it was actually the voice of Scott himself.
The "phonautograph" scratched sound waves onto a sheet of paper blackened by the smoke of an oil lamp,"It's magic," says David Giovannoni of First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers, sound archivists, scientists, others dedicated to preserving humankind's earliest sound recordings.A phonautogram containing the opening lines of Torquato Tasso's pastoral drama Aminta has also been found. Recorded around 1860, probably after April 9, this phonautogram is the earliest known recording of spoken human speech to be played back, predating Frank Lambert's 1878 recording of a talking clock and the Edison Company's 1888 phonographic recording of a Händel concert. Earlier recordings, made in 1857, also contain Scott's voice, but are unrecognizable because of the irregularity of speed.

Scott in his own words: http://www.firstsounds.org/features/scott.php

Opening lines from Tasso's Aminta (undated, probably April-May 1860)
Vole, Petite Abeille - Fly, Little Bee (undated, probably September 1860)
Au Clair de la Lune - By the Light of the Moon (April 9, 1860)
Gamme de la Voix - Vocal Scale (May 17, 1860)
Diapason at 435 Hz--at sequential stages of restoration (1859 Phonautogram)

You can listen to Scott's above mentioned early recordings here: http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scott.php

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard-L%C3%A9on_Scott_de_Martinville and http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/art... and http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/03/28/2202033.htm

For more on the "phonautograph" and to listen to the slowed down audio recording of "Au Clair de la Lune"check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonautograph

Roundhay Garden Scene/Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge by Louis Le Prince (1888), Handel's oratorio, Israel in Egypt by Sir August Manns (1888)

1888, the year of the death of the composer Charles-Valentin Alkan (Chopin's friend and neighbour) is also the year of the earliest surviving recording of music and earliest recorded film.

Combined on this video is the earliest surviving recording of music (a live performance of Handel's oratorio, Israel in Egypt conducted by Sir August Manns, recorded by Edison engineer George E. Gouraud at Crystal Palace, London, England, 29th June 1888) and the earliest surviving recorded film (shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince in Leeds, England in October 1888): Roundhay Garden Scene (filmed 14 October 1888) and Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (filmed late October 1888).

In the Roundhay Garden Scene (filmed in the garden of the Whitley family home in Oakwood Grange Road, Roundhay, Leeds, England) are the following people (from the left at beginning of sequence): Adolphe Le Prince (the film maker's son), Miss Harriet Hartley, Mrs. Sarah Whitley, (the film maker's mother-in-law), and Joseph Whitley (the film maker's business partner). The original film was shot at 12 frames per second and lasts 2 seconds. Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge was filmed in Leeds, England in late October 1888, at 20 frames per second.On Friday 29th June 1888, from 2pm, a performance of Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt was captured on a number of wax cylinder recordings. This performance was part of the trienniel Handel Festivals mounted in the UK. They were recorded from the press gallery in Crystal Palace by Edison-representative Colonel Gouraud, as a way to test and show off Edison's phonograph. Three of these cylinders still survive.

The conductor was Sir August Manns, conducting an orchestra of some 500 musicians and a choir of over 4,000 voices, in front of an audience of 23,722 people.

These are the earliest deliberate recordings of music known to exist (earlier recordings from the 1870s are considered lost). Fortunately these can be played back at a quite definite pitch, as we know the pitch of the Crystal Palace organ at this time.

Unfortunately, the recordings are in very poor shape, audibly speaking. You are going to have a very hard time grappling with the sound, and trying to make out anything. Each cylinder contains a number of tracks. This is what you are hearing:

Cylinder 1 (0:00 - 2:27) -

The first text is "[Mo]ses, and the children of Israel sung unto the Lord and spake saying", from the chorus at the opening of Part II (very hard to hear the orchestra in this).

Following this is "I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed" from the next number in Part II (you should be able to hear the altos and tenors singing at the start of this). Near the end you might make out the word "gloriously" sung in Handelian semiquavers.

Cylinder 2 (2:30 - 5:10) -

The first track on this cylinder is effectively inaudible. We do not know what the music is on it.

The second track is no.24 from the Oratorio: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power". Unfortunately, the stylus sticks in this track.

The third track is from the same number at "Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy", also with some stylus sticking problems.

Track 4 is yet more of this movement, ending with "For He hath triumphed gloriously".

Cylinder 3 (5:14 - 7:45) -

The first track is the last part of movement 37: "...ever, the Lord shall reign for ever and ever".

The second track is a fragment of number 39: "For ever and ever"

The third track is a continuation of the previous one from "...shall reign for ever and ever", and continuing as far as "For He hath triumphed gloriously".

The last track is the very end of the oratorio, from "...horse and his rider, the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea".

It's all very hard to make out. You can perceive a very slow tempo being employed at least.

Incidentally, Colonel Gourard was also present at the "phonograph party" in 1888 which captured Sullivan's voice, and his voice too exists on wax cylinder.

For more info about these rolls, there is a fantastic website to read here: http://www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace
For more information on: Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Aim%C3%A9_Augustin_Le_PrinceFor more information on: Sir August Manns
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Manns

Edison phonograph cylinders (1888): Handel - Israel in Egypt

Earliest surviving film and sound recording 1888