This is music made by four postal workers as they cancel postage! When I listen carefully, I think I can actually hear the spring mechanisms as the stamps hit the ink. I love it as an example of music turning what is normally seen as a boring, repetitive task into something this joyful.
The song was originally recorded in 1975 at the University of Ghana by James Koetting and appeared on a cd accompanying the book Worlds of Music, but you can download the whole clip here. Thanks to Bernie Krause and Anthropologist Steven Feld for helping me track this one down.
Have you used an upside-down tomato planter? I moved last year and I don't have as much space for a garden as I used to have, so I am considering getting a few upside-down tomato planters. If you have used them, please share your experience in the comments!
Early terse reports are that the jury has returned a guilty verdict for Dr Peter Watts, a science fiction writer who was beaten at the US-Canada border when he got out of his car to ask why it was being searched, then charged with assault. Peter faces up to two years in prison. I've emailed him for comment and I hope that he's appealing. More later.
"I've been incarcerated for 40 years, and I've had a good record all around. I don't see any reason for holding me." —Thomas Hagan, the confessed killer of Malcolm X. The state agrees with him: he will soon be out on parole, a murderer and a free man.
There is some really lush artwork going up on Matt Brooker’s blog and I think you all need to treat yourself on a Friday by visiting it [though he never visits CBO!].
Every time I have put this on at least three new conversions occur, where the listeners go on to permanently install this woman's music on their stereo. My neighbor even stalked me once just so she could listen to it more, until I just gave her my extra copy.
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is a nun currently living in Jerusalem. She grew up as the daughter of a prominent Ethiopian intellectual, but spent much of her young life in exile, first for schooling, and then again during Mussolini's occupation of Ethiopia's capitol city, Addis Ababa, in 1936. Her musical career was often tragically thwarted by class and gender politics, and when the Emperor himself actually went so far as to personally veto an opportunity for Guèbrou to study abroad in England, she sank into a deep depression before fleeing to a monastery in 1948. Today, she spends up to seven hours a day playing the piano in seclusion and even gave a concert to some lucky ducks in Washington D.C. a few years ago.
A compilation of her compositions was re-issued on the consistently great Ethiopiques label. You can read more about her life at the Emahoy Music Foundation.
Our Charity of choice for this year is BRACE (Bristol Research into Alzheimer’s and Care of the Elderly) Supporting research projects undertaken in universities and hospitals in the South West of the UK, particularly in Bristol, which is a centre of excellence for neuroscience research.
All the proceeds from The Charles Adard Print will be going towards BRACE and thanks to Charles generosity the ORIGINAL ARTWORK will be auctioned off @ the Show!
Full details on how to bid on this unique piece will be announced soon and stay tuned for MORE projects to be announced for COMIC EXPO!
And remember:EXPO TICKETS ARE OVER HALF GONE:IF YOU WANT TO ATTEND THE EXPO YOU MUST ORDER TICKET[s] IN ADVANCE. NO TICKET = NO EXPO ENTRANCE!
Smith Micro Software Announces Free Manga Studio Webinar Hosted By Watchmen’s Dave Gibbons
Gibbons to Teach Behind-the-Scenes Tips and Tricks of Manga Studio on March 21, 2010 at 2:00 PM PT
ALISO VIEJO, CA – Smith Micro Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMSI) Productivity and Graphics Group, today announced that Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons will host a webinar on Manga Studio®, the world’s number one selling comic and manga software. Gibbons will teach aspiring and professional artists how to create compelling comic illustrations from start to finish using Manga Studio.
Space in the webinar is limited to the first 500 people that register. Anyone can participate, from first time comic creators to professionals
Other:
Attendees will have a chance to win multiple prizes including Manga Studio™ EX 4, signed by Dave Gibbons, as well as autographed printouts of Gibbons’ newest comic creation designed during the one-hour webinar.
“Manga Studio is my favorite digital art software for drawing comics because it has an amazing range of natural feeling, fully customizable pens and brushes that are expressive and accurate,” said Dave Gibbons. “I particularly love the perspective ruler tool which, along with the many other specialized tools, is a huge time-saver. The ability to import and incorporate both 2-D and 3-D image references is a comic book artist’s dream come true.”
Dave Gibbons has worked in comics since 1973. Cutting his teeth on undergrounds and fanzines, he became a frequent contributor to Britain’s 2000AD illustrating “Harlem Heroes,” “Dan Dare” and co creating “Rogue Trooper.” Since then he has drawn and written for most comics publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. His work embodies a vast range of subjects and styles such as “Dr. Who,” “Superman,” “Batman,” “Green Lantern,” “Predator,” “Aliens,” the Hugo Award-winning “Watchmen” with writer Alan Moore, “Give me Liberty” and “Martha Washington Goes to War” with Frank Miller. His semi-autobiographical “The Originals” won an Eisner Award in 2005.
Building on the global success of the Manga Studio product line, long used by artists and hobbyists to create manga and comics, the software enables users to quickly create professional, ready-to-publish pages from start to finish. Manga Studio 4 is offered in two versions. Manga Studio Debut includes a complete feature set for users new to comic design and creation. Manga Studio EX offers comic artists an advanced feature set to quickly create professional, ready-to-publish pages, from start to finish.
Through March 31st 2010 Manga Studio Debut 4 and Manga Studio EX 4 are available for 50% off at http://manga.smithmicro.com/specialoffer/.
"I've been incarcerated for 40 years, and I've had a good record all around. I don't see any reason for holding me." —Thomas Hagan, the confessed killer of Malcom X. The state agrees with him: he will soon be out on parole, a murderer and a free man.
Welcome on fanzines dot info! Once upon a time, fanzines were technically modest do-it-yourself magazines, put together with a lot of enthusiasm, but generally not much money. Now that the process has been virtualized through Internet, everything is completely different, but everything is still exactly the same... all the same. Fanzines.info is a meta-fanzine, offering you an uncoherent magma of what's going on today in the realm of fanzines in cyberspace. This happens in many languages. Read the ones which you understand. Or viceversa. Enjoy.
Have you used an 
