http://www.ulfmagnet.com a village of ulfmagnet.com Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:50:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I finished On the Road last evening, a Tuesday in early October 2007. It had languished unread for several weeks as I dealt with the beginning of writing class and had an unexpected surge in social activity after Jim Thomas moved to the area. Yesterday with work a ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2007/10/03/cruising-the-sub-canon-on-the-road/ Strangely enough, I can count among my earliest memories the buzzsaw-and-angry-hornets sound of computer games loading into our Atari 800 home computer from cassette tape. What I never knew, until today, was that real live vinyl records have been released containing program data. kempa.com provides an entertaining and ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2007/06/19/vinyl-records-that-contain-computer-games/ Christopher Menone pointed me toward this image from Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030 site, from the section on water network initiatives: Hey, that cylindrical-shaft-extending-to-infinity thing looks familiar! The image from my blog's header is from a photo I took at Chateau de Chambord in France's Loire Valley, aiming up toward the ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2007/05/31/visual-rhymes-chambord-and-nyc/ A band called Bront (or BRONT, I never really decided if it was all caps or not) almost existed once, back in 2003 or so, when Donny Pecano and I lived in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. We called the recently-constructed Slab Studios home, which was convenient for ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2007/04/20/bront-another-band-that-mighta-been/ From the recently re-launched plexifilm.com (an Ulf Magnetics, Inc. project), here is a fairly amazing example of one of the early uses of the Moog synthesizer: as a means of shilling Schaefer beer (among countless other products.) Jingle king Edd Kalehoff does some mean analog knob-twiddling, ivory-tickling, ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2007/03/26/drinking-while-synthesizing-and-hungry-androids/ Wiley Wiggins done linked to me! Hey Wiley, if you ever read this, we really enjoyed your performances in Dazed and Confused and especially Waking Life. And in a strange coincidence, I finally got around to viewing the be-linked item, "Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda", last night. It is very, ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2007/01/09/celebrity-linkage/ This is the second part of a list of art, music, and events that, in one way or another, were sources of inspiration for me in '06. Part one of the list is here. "Object Lessons" (Gigantic Art Space, NYC) I posted about this previously, but this show downtown ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/12/15/some-things-that-inspired-me-in-2006-part-two/ The list-making impulse doesn't strike me often, but I thought it might be worth running down a list of books, albums, art, events, and miscellany that in one way or another fired me up creatively this year. I tend to have a shoddy memory and periodic reviews like this help ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/12/14/some-things-that-inspired-me-in-2006-part-one/ Never, ever, ever apologize for your price. Gots to remind myself of that one periodically. I think I learned it from TJ or maybe my father first, but oh how it's easy to forget. This has been a relatively good year for me as a freelancer... I've certainly never ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/12/12/possible-new-years-resolution-for-2007/ I was surprised to encounter my hometown of Altoona, Pennsylvania, near the back of the U.S. section of the New York Times today. I wish it had been less ignominious news: Altoona, With No Immigrant Problem, Decides to Solve It I hadn't heard about this ordinance passing. I can see ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/12/07/altoona-vs-the-invisible-immigrants/ At long last, images from our trip to Spain over Thanksgiving 2006. Highlights included ham legs and a turkey dinner for eight in Sevilla, Moorish palaces in Granada, and very strong sherry by the Mediterranean in Malaga. http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/12/04/an-andalusian-thanksgiving/ So, a question about inspiration: does it flow downhill, from big ideas? From philosophy and great literature and nature? From contemplating God and existence? Or does it grow up out of the dirt, out of the compost heap of the subconscious, from the residue of countless ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/10/25/some-thoughts-about-inspiration-and-the-nurturing-of-ideas/ I wish this were actually named after me. The Berry paradox is the apparent contradiction that arises from expressions such as the following: The smallest positive integer not definable in under eleven words. You see, it's a paradox, cause the statement itself, which defines said integer, is only ten words long! ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/10/16/my-mathematical-namesake/ http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/10/16/eureka/ Today I finally made the 47-mile ride to the Pacific Ocean and back. This ride was unofficially my first mini-goal on the way to a much (!) larger goal of taking a bike trip to Portland sometime in the next year and a half. I've been getting sort ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/10/14/a-ride-to-the-pacific-and-back/ Have you been to this thing yet on St. Mark's? If you have been there please tell me what it is like! http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/10/11/hey-nyc-peoples/ Push another item onto the ever-growing, never-overflowing media stack: Ira Cohen's Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda (more about it here and a trailer here. A more intense and arguably freakier preview over at The Wire.) This hyperinsane-looking film was recently released for the first time on DVD ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/10/03/invasion-of-the-thunderbolt-pagoda/ Via Idolator, Scott Walker's contribution to an upcoming 4AD compilation of songs thematically linked by the ten plagues. For those of you keeping track, said plagues would be: the Nile turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, disease of livestock, boils, hailstorms, locusts, darkness, and finally, the death of the ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/09/28/scott-walker-continues-his-descent-into-madness/ Once again via WFMU's Beware of the Blog, a really really messed up doodle from the oft-overlooked Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States. Old "Kid Gloves" gives us some of his own atavistic childhood psychedelia -- calipers with a skull head! And look out - ostrich on ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/09/22/the-first-time-ive-ever-thought-about-benjamin-harrison/ ZeldaClassic is a PC-based emulator and editor for the NES 8-bit classic game The Legend of Zelda. I've been thinking for some time about a way to get my hands on the data that constitutes the Overworld map of this game for use in a couple of art projects ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/09/10/adventures-in-obscurity-zc-reader-a-reader-for-zeldaclassic-quest-files/ By now you've heard of Lipplestock, or Lipplefest, or the Firth/Fourventh/Sorxth of July parties held on a nearly annual basis at TJ's parent's place in Altoona, PA. Ulf Magnet got itself together, barely, to play a few tunes this year. Here are the demos of the three originals ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/07/07/firth-of-july-2006-demos/ Ahhh, the bitter sting of rejection: Dear John, A quick note to say thanks but regrets on the crossword you sent me in March--IGUANA/ENFOLDS. The grid contains quite a few obscurities and made-up entries, like CLEAVE AT, RSH, CONNEM, UES, AS CAKE, HILAND, OKED TO, BE AS COY, IMPARO, SMART MOB, TO SEE ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/06/29/iguanaenfolds/ I remember wondering once (perhaps at the behest of a teacher) what a million of something, anything, all in one place would look like. How about Danish starlings? I wonder what it looks like from the inside of the cloud? (via boingboing) p.s. there has got to be a black metal band ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/06/21/black-sun/ We spent a good bit of time after the honeymoon throwing together an "art installation", or something not unlike that, for a show organized by my friend Ben last Sunday at Goodbye Blue Monday in Bushwick. Becca and I had grandiose plans for the installation to say the least ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/06/18/asciiscope-live/ http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/06/17/wedding-photos/ The new Sonic Youth record, "Rather Ripped", was released today. I'm not normally one to run out and buy records the day they're released, but I heard a few tracks in advance and got uncharacteristically excited about this one. So... it's no disappointment! It was recorded for ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/06/13/rather-ripped/ Former WPRB music director Dan Ruccia posted this to the cassettemythos mailing list and I couldn't resist... nothing makes you happy like your life's first encounter with bizarre-itude. http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/04/19/atavistic-childhood-psychedelia/ My soon-to-be-sister-in-law and her husband are both fashion designers. You might know them from the costumes they did for Le Tigre's last US tour, and if you've ever seen the Locust play you've also seen their work. The best yet, I think is their 2006 line. Their Death Valley shoot ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/04/18/byben-2006/ Brace yourselves and bear in mind I have no easy explanation for this Also by the same painter. Why Altoona? Is that Pittsburgh burning on the horizon? WHY??? via ted, over a year ago tom kidd altoonaaltoona art http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/04/03/altoona-next-exit/ Congratulations to my father and his business partner Sally Rubenstone, whose college admissions counseling site collegeconfidential.com got a seriously high-profile mention in Friday's New York Times! The article is currently #4 on the "most emailed articles" list on the site. The forums on their site are complete insanity. ... http://www.ulfmagnet.com/2006/04/01/my-dads-latest-success/