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12/18/2017

There's a new episode of the podcast out today! In this episode, we explore a major social experiment–one that’s now barely a footnote in U.S. history. At the center of this story is the German industrialist Alfred Dolge.

In upstate New York, about an hour and a half northwest of Albany, sits the small town of Dolgeville: population 2,000. The scenery is beautiful: nestled in a valley surrounded by gentle green hills,

03/19/2017

Beautiful collages by Augustine Kofie.

A new series of painting and collage work by Los Angeles-based artist Augustine Kofie (previously featured here). See more images from “Build From Memory” below or on display at Galerie Openspace in Paris until April 1. Photo … Continue reading →

02/25/2017

Fascinating article about Hugh Tracey's recordings in Kenya.

Listening to “Chemirocha III” feels like a lesson in the inadvertent benefits of intercultural melding, and of the slipperiness of the concept of musical “purity.”

11/26/2016

New episodes coming soon!

08/29/2016

Beautiful-sounding homemade zither: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVHX3k-CsQo

Who knew chopsticks could sounds so good..? Sami Elu creates amazing music all from recycled instruments ↓↓↓ → Subscribe! http://bit.ly/1tLVDYk → http://www....

06/01/2016

Just released a brand new podcast episode!

"If you flip through any musical instrument catalog, one fact will become blindingly clear: the guitar is by far the most popular instrument in America. But that wasn’t always the case, and I’ve often wondered: if the electric guitar hadn’t gotten so popular, what would we be playing instead?

To answer this question, I take a trip back in time by means of the 1903 Sears Roebuck catalog and a series of Philadelphia junk shops. In the process, I discover a type of instrument that used to be hugely popular and is now all but forgotten: the fretless zither. After finding and restoring a host of instruments I’d never seen before, including phonoharps, Marxophones, and Taishogotos, I end up building a harp of my own."

If you flip through any musical instrument catalog, one fact will become blindingly clear: the guitar is by far the most popular instrument in America. But t...

05/26/2016

Neat experiment.

Innovator and audiophile Yuri Suzuki has created an app that lets users turn anything, from Post It notes to plant pots and people, into a functioning musical instrument.

05/12/2016

Can you remember what a bicycle looks like?

In 2009 designer Gianluca Gimini started asking friends and strangers to draw a men’s bicycle from memory. While some got it right, most made technical errors — missing fundaments parts of the frame or chain. The exercise is similar to … Continue reading →

05/02/2016

So cool.

A series of diorama-esque, mini sculptures built around various potted succulents and cacti by Los Angeles-based artist Jedediah Corwyn Voltz. The miniature treehouses are outfitted with tiny details, rugs and even potted plants of their own. See more images from “Somewhere … Continue reading →

02/10/2016

My grandmother was a lot of things: an abstract expressionist painter, a social worker, a collector of antiques. But as far as the internet is concerned, she had just one real claim to fame: she was the associate producer of Zombie Nightmare (1987), a movie so bad it’s featured on the IMDb’s “Bottom 100” list. Strangely, it stars Adam West and Tia Carrere.

In this episode, I do a deep dive into this extremely minor footnote in my family’s history. I rewatch the movie and try to get to bottom of what makes it so bad, and I also reach out to people who were actually involved in creating it. Terrible movies don’t make themselves. A movie this bad has to have a lot of secrets.

My grandmother was a lot of things: an abstract expressionist painter, a social worker, a collector of antiques. But as far as the internet is concerned, she had just one real claim to fame: she was the associate producer of Zombie Nightmare (1987),

11/25/2015

In the first episode, I explore the bizarre world of Fiverr, a website that lets you purchase services for five dollars. As an experiment in online music collaboration with strangers, I take one of my own songs and replace each instrument track with a new recording made by a Fiverr session musician. The episode chronicles the process and culminates in a version of the song produced entirely by the Internet.

In this episode, I explore the bizarre world of Fiverr, a website that lets you purchase services for five dollars. To learn how it works, I take one of my o...