Welcome to 'Transmitting to Earth'. I'm Charssun and I'll be your host. This blog and podcast is a byproduct of VoyagerRadio.com and is intended to provide the most timely information about this Internet radio station. It is also intended to be a fun and accessible electronic journal with commentary focusing on Internet radio, podcasting and webcasting issues and technologies, music, and some of my other interests. I also offer personal perspective about being an Internet radio broadcaster (and podcaster).
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Massive Space Storm Creates Rare Light Show in Night SkyIf you're looking at the night sky at the right time over the next few evenings, you may be able to catch a rare event in the night sky in your area: the aurora borealis, or what's commonly known as the northern lights, a spectacular display of colorful lights usually enjoyed only by those who live in the northern hemisphere. The event is being caused by a massive geomagnetic storm--currently in progress--which began as one of the most violent solar flares in years erupted, sending protons hurtling toward our planet at several million miles per hour and colliding with us yesterday morning. I haven't heard any reports from anyone here in Los Angeles who has seen the lights, but folks from locations as close as Sacramento, California (as well as a variety of other worldwide locales) have been able to capture some dazzling images of this phenomenom. Let me know if you're able to see the northern lights in your neighborhood, and be sure to check out Joe Eiers' image of the Auroras (as seen from Sacramento), which I am currently featuring on VoyagerRadio.com. Joe Frank Honored at Third Coast Festival AwardsJoe Frank is currently being honored by the Third Coast International Audio Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The radio performance artist (an inadequate description, but in the interest of keeping this post short and to the point, I'll serve him the great injustice of referring to him as such) has produced audio artwork over the course of three decades, most of which was composed of the marvelously original narratives heard weekly on KCRW radio between 1986 and 2002. Mr. Frank's compositions are now available by purchase at the official Joe Frank website, JoeFrank.com. You can also read a transcript of his acceptance speech there, or listen to the speech at the Third Coast Festival site.
If you are unfamiliar with Joe Frank's unique blend of narrative, music, and radio theater (another hopelessly inadequate description of his art), do yourself a favor and head over to JoeFrank.com to listen to a sample of his work. Joe has generously made most of his recordings freely available via streaming, so fire up your Real Media Player and tune in to one of my favorite pieces, "An Enterprising Man", an hysterical autobiographical narrative of an ambitious--albeit demented--gentleman. Or be adventurous and select a random stream--that's what I usually do in the wee hours of insomniacal nights. However it's done, once you've heard Joe's shows something inside you will be forever altered and inspired. You may not completely understand his art at first, but something will compel you to keep going back to hear more--and more, and more, and more. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know--but it sure is fun to listen. Getting Hyper at the HammerTonight at the Hammer Museum I attended the first in a yearlong series of readings presented by the Electronic Literature Organization, an organization established "to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature". Beyond blogs and other hypertext documents you can read online, electronic literature spans a variety of multimedia, including digital audio and video, animated text, spontaneous, performance-oriented text, and texts that readers can interact with and add their own writing to. Tonight's performance, for example, consisted of sound poetry by artist Christian Bök. Not to be confused with spoken word (although words are spoken in the form), this fascinating genre of poetry/performance consists of an emphatic utterance of words, syllables, consonants, vowels, or a lack of any of the aforementioned elements. One example is a poem called "And Sometimes", performed by citing all the English words that don't have vowels. Does it sound strange? You betcha--strange and really fascinating. But don't take it from me--listen for yourself.
This poetry reminded me of the music of Squarepusher, an artist who has challenged and forever changed my notions of how a song can be constructed. Tom Jenkinsen, the one-man-band behind Squarepusher, experiments with pushing the boundaries of traditional song composition, creating playful and often disorienting sonic constructions which incorporate a variety of electronic instrumentation, sounds and beats. Underlying these often manic aural adventures you sometimes find a discernible rhythm--but not always. (At least, not to my ears.) Tom's music is more akin to the experimentalism found in conceptual art rather than the conventionalism found in pop music, and his poetic constructions of sound can certainly be described as hypertexts of their own. In fact, one of Squarepusher's songs is called "Iambic 5 Poetry". When I mentioned this to artist Christian Bök (who'd heard Squarepusher but was unfamiliar with the song), he smiled and said, "That's a great title. I wish I'd thought that one up myself." Listen to some samples of Squarepusher here. Apple Changes It's TuneWell, it's finally happened, folks. Apple has finally officially and indisputably joined the Dark Side with the unveiling of its new version of iTunes, making the iTunes Music Store available for Windows users. Seriously, though, I have nothing personal against the Windows operating system--in fact, I'm using it to write this post right now (though admittedly, I'm doing it out of necessity and I'd rather be using my trusty Blue Mac)--but just what is Apple thinking? You may think it's obvious; Apple wants to cash in on the ninety-something-odd percent of Windows users--and potential music buyers--who thus far have been locked out of Apple's Insanely Great music downloading service, right? Well, yes, but maybe not in the way you're thinking. Apple's not making a dime off their iTunes Music Store alone. (I exaggerate slightly, but not much--the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Apple is making approximately ten cents for every song they sell through their music downloading service--and unless Apple sells a miraculous number of songs, its simply not enough profit to reasonably justify the cost of operating the store.) So how is Apple planning on bringing in the dirty paper?
By selling Power Macs. Since the music downloaded through the iTunes Music Store can be stored on iPods, Apple is hoping these portable MP3 players, which are already being bought up by Windows users at a ratio of 2 to 1, will begin to sell exponentially and eventually entice Windows users to invest in other Apple hardware. It's part of their whole "Digital Hub" strategy, unveiled two years ago, combined with elements of their more recent "Switch" ad campaign. Apple is counting on the simplicity and elegance of their music download store to entice enough "switchers" to provide them with a larger market share, and, therefore, a future. Is this a pipe dream, or is this another brilliant save for a company that many say should have perished a long, long time ago? You tell me--make your comments below! China Joins the Great Gig in the SkyChina has launched its first manned spacecraft, becoming the third nation--just the third--to have a space program capable of manned (need I say humanned?) space travel. Now you may be thinking, wait a minute--aren't they just a little behind? As in, 4 decades behind? Well, yes and no. China, although just now catching up with the U.S. and Russian space programs' past accomplishments, have demonstrated remarkable technological progress over the past few years, creating a space program that has the potential to contend with NASA, which has been under heavy scrutinization since the horrific explosion of the space-shuttle Columbia in February and had been criticized for a variety of other issues prior to that. China may now be in a position to surpass the Russian manned space program and enter into an full-scale competition with the U.S. over space travel supremacy.
Hopefully, our nations will find a way to join hands in this adventure rather than forestall humankind's slow, but somewhat steady--and certainly eventual--realization of the dream of journeying through, and potentially living in, outer space. Competition usually provokes innovation; let's just hope those innovations produce reasonably safe space vehicles, and that we, as a public, have the courage and the sense to allow those brave and heroic individuals among us to go for the ride. Ready for More Music?Okay, I've gradually been making several adjustments to VoyagerRadio over the past several weeks, such as researching and inserting alot of new tracks into the playlist. Additions include: music from the Badorb.com compilation, "Bless You", the "Elemental Chill, Vol. 2: Earth" compilation, more Royksopp music, tracks from the Verve Remixed 2 compilation, artists Baby Mammoth, J Boogie, and many more! As always, I will continue to keep the playlist as fresh as possible, removing tracks that have been overplayed and introducing new ones I acquire as Voyager continues on its exploration of downtempo. So enjoy the new music! MusicBee - Search For Your MusicHave you tried MusicBee? I found out about this music search engine while running a standard Google search to find out more about an artist called Baby Mammoth. With MusicBee you can find links to some of your favorite bands' websites, as well as find out about other bands that sound similiar to your band. And since this system references other artists through a process which involves user's input, you can help build MusicBee with your own input. Try it out and let me know what you think! Jack's BackHalloween is hands-down one of my favorite holidays, if not my very favorite, and I can carve a mean Jack o' Lantern for the occasion--but these turnip heads are especially skilled in the art of carvin' the pumpkin. Jack Skellington would be pleased. Besides this blog, a narrative blog called something that happened, and various other projects, I also moderate a discussion forum: Please consider subscribing to engage in a dialogue about all things having to do with Internet radio! |
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Artists! Want to be heard on this station? Email your MP3 audio, one file at a time, to our Program Director or mail your CD promo(s) to the following address:
Harold J. JohnsonVoyagerRadio
547 Gayley Avenue #1
Los Angeles, CA 90024 Make certain to let use know whether we may use the audio in our podcast, too!
Download the Podcast
We are officially podcasters now that we have revitalized and reintroduced our downtempo show Tempo of the Down, this time around as a podcast. Now showcasing independent downtempo we've been granted permission to offer for download, Tempo of the Down is our entry into the future of Internet radio.
Head over to our new Podcast area to download the latest session!
