Matt's Homepage

One more example of how there is nothing new under the sun – and that there are some universal rhythms and patterns across time and cultures.

On of my favorite albums is Kind of Blue. Most people credit Miles Davis with the album’s genius, but the reality is that Bill Evans came up with some of the most iconic phrases in the album – including most of the piano portions (which are some of my favorites honestly).

One of the most obvious is Blue in Green. Give the genius of Bill Evans a listen and see how their amazing talents worked together.

Blue in Green from Kind of Blue (18:03)

I’m a fan of ambient music when writing code, and in the late 90’s spent far too much time listening to the Orb – especially the 2 disc set The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. Track 1 was the famous “Little Fluffy Clouds“.

The song gets it’s origins from a sound clip (above) that came from an interesting interview with Rickie Lee Jones talking about growing up in Arizona. Bonus points for the fact the interviewer asked her “What were the skies like when you were young.” Who would think to ask that kind of question of a pop star?

Recorded with a really terrible mobile mic – but it still gets the effect across.

Skalar is a massive audio-visual sculpture – a collaborative piece by light artist Christopher Bauder and musician Kangding Ray. The combination of kinetic mirrors, perfectly synchronized moving lasers, a changing color palette, and a sophisticated multi-channel sound system triggers sensory and psychological reactions and offers a truly innovative experience.

This is the reason I love climbing and snowboarding the high places of Oregon’s mountains. The bit at top is magical.

Pow Surf 101 from Kurtis Jackson on Vimeo.

Mark Davis worked behind the service desk at the Naperville, IL Kmart in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Every month, corporate office issued a cassette to be played over the store speaker system — canned elevator-type music with advertisements seeded every few tracks. Around 1991, the muzak was replaced with mainstream hits, and the following year, new tapes began arriving weekly. The cassettes were supposed to be thrown away, but Davis dutifully slipped each tape into his apron pocket to save for posterity. He collected this strange discount department store ephemera until 1993, when background music began being piped in via satellite service.

He has digitized a good number of the tapes. Go check out some of these amazing store flashbacks…

https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers