Stories

[4.10.11] Crowdsourced 1.0: dreamlogicc, Protman, Roth Mobot, Polyfuse

What really makes a music scene? You know–those certain reasons that make you put on a jacket and promptly head for the El or call a cab just to get there in time. That’s what Chicago Innovative Electronic Music (CIEM) and subVariant are asking via their Crowdsourced 1.0 event: What is it about electronic music that people want to see live? It really is a heady question. But, CIEM & subVariant‘s preliminary answer seems to be: "That which is "crowdsourced." To the unfamiliar, "crowdsourced" means…

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Feb. 9: Free Soundcloud Meetup at Transistor

Check out our Soundcloud Meetup at Transistor. The folks from Transistor, a cool music and bookstore in Uptown have kindly agreed to host this Meetup. Also, this Meetup will be a bit tricked up. There will be Soundcloud swag and wi-fi, so people can share their tracks. From the Soundcloud Meetup Group: Also, the folks from Soundcloud would like for us to record some audio (music, interviews, whatever) from the meetup to share with the…

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Madeline McLean Knight 2000-2011

My adorable, lovable, cuddly, relentlessly independent, intelligent fur-baby left this physical operating system to upgrade to to cloud computing yesterday. She was facing a very uncomfortable future that I couldn’t bear to put her through, and I miss her terribly already. She migrated peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, favorite toys, her adored bed and the blue comforter that she always insisted on pulling off my bed to sleep on when I wasn’t around. In blurringly…

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Ode to Sniffles, The Frost-Breathing Dragon

Ode to Sniffles by Liz Revision on Mixcloud Liz Revision:“Ode To Sniffles” [DOWNLOAD MP3] Download the PDF of Sniffles to cut out and assemble. 1. Altered Tensions “Slow in Ashes” The Answer to the Question You Forgot to Ask [Self] 2. Diarmo “Details” Robohustlin [subVariant] 3. s.t. “Emotions in a Box” Emotions in a Box [Monotonik] 4. Elijah B. Torn “oooEight” Robohustlin [subVariant] 5. Kettel “Boekebaas” Myam James 2 [Sending Orbs] 6. Fourtet “Sings (Extended)” There…

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Punchcards: Blank greeting cards made from vintage computer punch cards

Greeting cards are in full circulation during the holiday season, and I had been thinking a while about something that would be geeky and retro, so I went searching for old-school punch cards. A punched card (also known by various synonyms) is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Now almost an obsolete recording medium, punched cards were widely used throughout the…

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Meeblip: Open Source, Hackable Digital Hardware Synth

Check out this cool synth kit that’s meant to be poked prodded and programmed into whatever you wish. It’s designed by James Grahame of Reflex Audio + Retro Thing, and Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music. Here’s a demo of the kind of sounds you can make with this little hackable blippy instrument: Meeblip bassline demo by cdm From James: Oscillator A & B slightly detuned, square wave on A and sawtooth on B. FM turned all the way…

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Internet lessons everyone needs to learn

…Learn your own goddamn language. Once upon a time you could get away with not knowing the difference between “their” and “they’re” because in spoken conversation they sound the same. Online, everybody can see that you weren’t paying attention in fourth grade when you mix up “your” and “you’re.” Remember that text is going to be how you make your first impression over the internet; if every third word you type is misspelled, people will…

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"Outdated representations of African-American nerds are simply not cutting it anymore"

A coalition of African-American activists and scholars released a strongly worded statement Monday citing the “urgent need” for popular media to depict a new black nerd archetype that more accurately reflects the full spectrum of 21st-century American dorkdom. “Outdated representations of African-American nerds are simply not cutting it anymore,” the statement read in part. “Perhaps in the ’80s and ’90s it was possible for young people to identify with Steve Urkel’s hiked-up pants, nasal voice,…

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"Education" is archaic and ineffective. Time for a new model. Just sayin'

This is Sir Ken Robinson’s view on what is going on with the current state of “Education” and subtly pokes at ways to consider new models. For one, the education model we have now is modeled on Enlightenment & Industrial Age mentalities, and not those of the current, so-called “Information Age.” For one, change in the current world happen a lot faster than they did in previous years. We’ve never had so much access to…

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