Saturday, 5 June 2010

Defense contractors remember their N.J. friends in Congress

Friday, 4 June 2010

Tiananmen leader's 'diary' revealed

Tweeter appeals against conviction over explosive airport message

The Voice of Oscar Wilde?

How to combine two recent {feuilleton} obsessions? Ask whether Oscar Wilde had his voice recorded on an Edison machine at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, 1900. It’s a tantalising question. We know from Wilde’s letters that he visited the Exposition several times; he talked with Rodin and admired a self-portrait by his old painter friend Charles Shannon in the British pavilion. Edison staff were prominent at the exposition and did us a favour by filming parts of it. Several of the Wilde biographies mention the rumoured recording, the details of which are recounted at Utterly Wilde:

According to H Montgomery Hyde’s 1975 biography of Oscar Wilde: “…It was during one of these visits to the Exhibition that Wilde was recognized in the American pavilion, where one of the stands was devoted to the inventions of Thomas Edison. One of these inventions was the ‘phonograph or speaking machine,’ and Wilde was asked to say something into the horn of the recording mechanism. He responded by reciting part VI of The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, which consists of the last three stanzas of the poem, and identifying it with his name at the end.” (More.)

The purported wax cylinder is lost but an acetate copy surfaced in the 1960s. Wilde’s son, Vyvyan Holland, identified his father’s voice then changed his mind later on. An analysis by the British Sound Archive threw further doubt on the recording so we’re left to make up our own minds which you can do for yourself here. It doesn’t sound to me like the voice one would expect from a man of Wilde’s physical size, but then I also never expected Aleister Crowley’s voice to be so highly-pitched. If anyone knows of more recent research or detail about the Wilde recording, please leave a comment.

John Coulthart @'{feuilleton}'

This video illustrates real-time MRI of vocal performance. It includes examples from a soprano and an emcee/beatboxer. This video was featured at the Sounds and Visions Session, of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Scientific Sessions, May 2006, Seattle.
For more information, visit sail.usc.edu/span

DooneyStudio

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” – Joseph Goebbels [O'Reilly is a fucking symphony orchestra]

♪♫ Julee Cruise - Rockin' Back Inside My Heart

From David Lynch's Industrial Symphony 1: Dream of the Brokenhearted

Corner V1 Workstation

(Photo: Born Rich)

The Vision One (V1) workstation is intended to improve music, gaming, home theater, and working experience. The feet and elbow supports pivot. This adjustable workstation comes in a variety of colors and other upgrades. The most popular upgrade is to a Porsche seat that can have up to 12 functions including power lumbar controls and heat.

More geeky wetdreams

@'Web Urbanist'