music
neurophilosophy | July 7, 2008Over the last two months, Nature has published a series of essays about the latest scientific research into music, and now that the series is complete, it has been made available as a free PDF.
Among the authors of the essays are Aniruddh D. Patel, a theoretical neurobiologist at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, who discusses the brain's response to different varieties of music, and Laurel Trainor, director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, who explains the neural basis of music perception.
Nature also has a special podcast featuring a discussion between science writer…
aardvarchaeology | July 4, 2008
Here's a set of pics from the Music Tuscany mini-festival near San' Giovanni d'Asso in Tuscany, Italy, last week.
aardvarchaeology | June 28, 2008Drove yesterday to the village of San Giovanni d'Asso (Sw. Sankt Hans pÃ¥ Dass). Stopped on the way at an excavation, the church site of San Pietro in Pava, where as yet poorly known Roman activity gave way to continuous church use from the 6th through the 13th century. Nobody was on site because of the siesta, put I read the signposts in Italian as best I could and showed the kids two recently uncovered skeletons in the churchyard. Tricky conditions, earth hardening in the baking sun, many fresh breaks and trowel abrasions on the bones. I would prefer myself to work at night or under an…
goodmath | June 27, 2008 I haven't done a FRT in a while.
Mogwai, "Kids Will be Skeletons": a typical Mogwai
track; brilliant post-rock.
The Redneck Manifesto, "Bring Your Own Blood: more
post-rock in the same general vein as Mogwai. This one is a bit
up-tempo, with a very cool rythym.
Gogol Bordello, "Dub the Frequencies of Love: an Eastern
European gypsy punk band doing reggae. Insane, but very cool.
Tony Levin, "Beyond My Reach: A few years ago, the god
of the Chapman stick finally started recording some of his
own music. He's got a surprisingly good voice. The album is
terrific, ranging from…
terrasig | June 25, 2008When I first heard that 24-year-old British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse was hospitalized with early stage emphysema I said "what?" DrugMonkey, a drug-abuse research colleague, has a terrific post up now on the link between Winehouse's crack cocaine use, possible genetic predisposition, and the emergence of early-onset emphysema.
While sad to see a very young person so afflicted, I tend to be fascinated scientifically by these odd medical cases involving natural products - often drugs of abuse.
I'm also particularly impressed by Amy Winehouse's tremendous vocal talents and songwriting…
neurophilosophy | June 21, 2008Here's some superb old footage of the legendary Syrian musician Farid al-Atrash giving a virtuoso performance on the oud.
neurophilosophy | June 18, 2008This cartoon, found at Paleo-Future, accompanied a short article from the August 28th, 1949 edition of the San Antonio Light:
CHICAGO, Aug. 27 - (AP) - Some day composers won't write music, and musicians won't play it - yet fans will enjoy it in never-before-heard perfection.
The composer or artist will simply project it by brain waves - "thought transference," says Raymond Scott.
BRAIN WAVES
This man, who thinks in terms of electronics and music, thinks that is all quite possible. Scott said in an interview:
"Brains put out electrical waves. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some day it…
awild | June 15, 2008Yes, the computer is still in the shop. But there's still Gogol Bordello and what is quite possibly the world's best song:
terrasig | June 12, 2008I'm even later to the game on this story than my blogging colleague, Orac: ERV, Pharyngula, and denialism blog have each given their takes on the Minnesota's plan to authorize NDs, doctors of naturopathy, to use the title of "Doctor."
For two views on what naturopathy is, here is one from the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians and another from Quackwatch. We link - you decide.
As I read the story, it sounds as though the new legislation allows naturopaths to practice without being prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license. No word yet on whether they can be sued…
aardvarchaeology | June 9, 2008The micro-SD flash memory chip that came with my new smartphone has some interesting issues with data integrity. I mostly use it to store sound files in the mp3 format, both pop songs of a few MB each and podcasts taking up tens of megabytes. And while listening to podcasts, in the middle of them, I have repeatedly come across three interesting and disturbing errors. The flash memory makes psychedelic remixes of my sound files!
As I listen to one mp3 file, I suddenly hear several seconds from another file before the original recording resumes.
As I listen to one mp3 file, I suddenly hear…
terrasig | June 8, 2008Apologies for being such a homer with the last few posts (and a couple upcoming) but there have been interesting local happenings of broad interest, especially while I was away earlier this week.
Turns out that the good Senator Edward Kennedy took a foray to the Town-That-Tobacco-Built to have his glioblastoma excised by Dr Dr Allan Friedman. The local fishwrapper covered this while I was away and noted that while Duke is big on tooting their own horns, they kept an unusually low profile with their high-profile patient.
But I actually didn't learn this news until I received an e-mail from a…
laelaps | June 1, 2008When I was in high school I used to spend my Saturday mornings making mix tapes to play in my 1990 Pontiac Bonneville when I went out on Saturday night. Sure, iPods and other devices that you can dump all your favorite music onto are convenient but there are few things more personal than a mix tape. (Anyone who has made one for a special someone knows what I mean.) Now there's a program that lets you make "mix tapes" that you can put on your blog and I just couldn't resist.
ddobbs | May 28, 2008
For Claudius Conrad, a 30-year-old surgeon who has played the piano seriously since he was 5, music and medicine are entwined — from the academic realm down to the level of the fine-fingered dexterity required at the piano bench and the operating table.
C.J. Gunther for The New York Times
IN TUNE Dr. Conrad, a pianist and surgeon, says that he works better when he listens to music and that music is helpful to patients.
“If I don’t play for a couple of days,” said Dr. Conrad, a third-year surgical resident at Harvard Medical School who also holds doctorates in stem cell biology and…
ddobbs | May 26, 2008
A Chopin Nocturne...
from Derek Bownds' MindBlog by noreply@blogger.com (Deric)Bownds blogs on neuro matters -- and, each week, posts a video of him playing a bit of classical music on his piano. Gotta like it.
FDA To Mine Big Databases For Safety Problems
from Pharmalot
The effort, called Sentinel Initiative,will be the first time the FDA will have an opportunity to monitoralmost immediately how drugs are affecting the public. To do so, theagency will mine databases of more than 20 million patients who receivetheir drugs through Medicare. The idea, of course, is to catch sideeffects…
awild | May 24, 2008
We went down to the Rialto last night to catch a benefit concert by Calexico. Best show I've seen in ages. They pull off an unexpected blend of mariachi, folk, and straight-up rock, including a Neil Young cover featuring two full mariachi bands and a slew of guest vocalists on stage. Calexico is perhaps Tucson's most successful troupe of local musicians, capturing the dual American-Mexican character of the city. Watch the video, though, to see for yourself.
aardvarchaeology | May 22, 2008
I've posted a fine example of Ansiktsburk song lyrics before: listen to a song in a language you don't understand, and try to imagine that it is actually sung in your own language though with a funny accent. Then write down whatever words you can half make out. Thus the Swedish drinking song "Helan går" becomes "Hell and gore, shun hope Father Alan, lay!".
Now Paddy K directs my attention to a new permutation of this idea. Here's a piece of choral music sung in English in such a way that the real lyrics are difficult to make out -- and the ansiktsburk poet has set new English words to it.…
oracknows | May 18, 2008What better thing to do than to do a little Sunday afternoon YouTube action with my all time favorite artist, David Bowie? This time, it's one of the best songs in Bowie's entire catalog.
aardvarchaeology | May 5, 2008More good and witty UK rapping, this time a year-old hit from Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip.
Thanks to Paddy K for the tip-off.
awild | May 2, 2008
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is another Aussie band that has made it into my regular rotation. Nick Cave was recently interviewed by Terry Gross, where we learn that his parentage includes a librarian and an English teacher. This may explain the sophistication of his lyrics. In any case, I like it.