Here is what the sky looked like outside my living room window on the evening of August 14th, 2008. What is strange about these clouds is that they appear to be higher than the already high darker red clouds near the horizon. Sunlight is being reflected more intensely off the lighter clouds for a longer period of time after sunset. Also the National Weather Service has issued an air stagnation advisory for the Puget Sound area.
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The photo is beautiful. I’ve only been as close as Portland (where my best friend lives), as I call North Park, San Diego my home. (You’ve probably heard of San Diego. It’s that huge military-industrial complex about two hours south of that other huge military-industrial complex, Los Angeles.)
I guess I’m what you’d call a latter-day NL fan, but I’m definitely an ardent one. I’m a musician, as well, and NL has been one of the loves in my life for about six years now. So, I missed just over two decades, hence I have some catching up to do. I have done a bit of that, however, by listening to some classic NL tracks. My faves, probably like many others, are the records “Escape From Noise”, “Dispepsi” & “Guns”. (Yes, I know the last is an EP, not an LP, but it’s a great EP, and sometimes brevity is better, though I personally have a hard time keeping things brief, as you’ll likely soon find out.)
There was a recent resurgence of NL in my life when I found “Our Favorite Things” in a local video rental shop. But their copy was badly scratched and unplayable, so I went ahead and bought a copy at a wonderful record store in north San Diego called Lou’s Records. [www.lousrecords.com] (I don’t work there or have anything to do with the place, I just love them for their integrity and selection.)
I very much enjoy the Weatherman extras, especially since I’d never been able to put a face to your voice before. And I’m a huge fan of your voice and the way you speak. You don’t dawdle, mumble, under-enunciate or otherwise express yourself incoherently. And I really appreciate how nearly every idea you decide to express verbally is relevant to what’s at hand, and how you follow through to conclusions, reasonably and thoroughly.
I’m making you sound like a robot, of course, but you’re anything but. I’ve always loved your subversive sense of humor and your desert-dry wit, and how you interject these subtle, friendly, but sneaky observations just often enough to keep the listener entertained and engaged.
But your tone is probably what engrosses me the most. It’s playful and fun, but always with inflections which indicate, to me, a moderate suspicion of everything. (And as far as I’m concerned, that’s only healthy.) It also, of course, intentionally or not, belies your anxiety which, like mine, expresses itself in obsessive compulsions. Hence, watching the video of you at home made you feel even more like a kindred spirit.
In closing, I suppose the essence of what I’m trying to say is that I tremendously appreciate what you, M, D, R, P, T, T2, S & J have done to make the world a far more interesting and thought-provoking place. Thanks, you guys, for the music. And thank you particularly, D, for every time you’ve committed one of your ideas to tape.
Though it doesn’t fully realize it, the world is far better for what Negativland has done to it.
“Where the excitement really begins!”
DTH / Aaron
[ no site currently, but soon to be back up. ]
oooh-kayy! Creeped me out reading that comment, wtf!!
I thought it was sincere and well-written, and I know David will appreciate it.
Thanks, Aaron, for being so honest, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the site, and beyond excited that it’s being used so much.
But i’m trying to figure out who T2, S & J are!
-jb
snugganut [at] negativland.com
Snugganut,
Thank you for that. Indeed, I have no desire to creepily harass, pester or otherwise annoy D or any other member of NL. I don’t do things like that, mainly because I’m too interested in my own life. Besides, people in general are tolerant of my own eccentricities and let me be, so it’s only polite to return the favor.
My points were really, only these things: [1] Negativland is a particularly important musical entity in all the annals of recorded sound, both because of their unique approach to sonic construction and their fearlessness in challenging our outdated, stifling, and useless notions of what constitutes “property” in artistic expression; [2] D’s musical abilities, particularly his frank and honest approach with his voice, lend an even more profound and refreshing uniqueness to an already significant group.
And I don’t want to use names, because I’m unsure of the desires of certain members of NL to remain as anonymous as possible. However, it think it’s safe to use initials, and here that may be enough to clarify who I referred to as “T2, S & J”. Respectively, that’s TK, S&S, and JL.
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Christianity is truly stupid.
DTH / Aaron
I just read a news story on yahoo about “Strange Clouds Spotted at the Edge of Space” and thought of you w man. Here is an excerpt:
“The clouds form at dizzying heights where the air is one hundred million times drier than the Sahara. By contrast, the common high-altitude cirrus clouds only reach heights of 11 miles (18 km) up.”
Yeah, see:
“People first spotted the noctilucent clouds a few years after the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa super-volcano in Indonesia created spectacular sunsets from ash in the atmosphere. Robert Leslie of Southampton, England saw the clouds one evening in July 1885 and published the first observations in the journal Nature.
The clouds have since spread from the northern latitude regions such as Scandinavia, Scotland and Siberia to areas farther south. Sightings have cropped up in Washington and Oregon in the United States, as well as in Turkey and Iran. ”
Ever seen those, Weatherman?
Possibly smoke and / or smog brought up by southerly flow aloft from California.
around 10 years back’ i saw a beautiful kelvin-helmholtz chain . squash and i went up on big hill to burn one and due west probably over yuba /nevada county ther it was. it was a moment of disbelief, i just sat there frozen like a dumb bogart. squash was equally stumped. they disolved and drifted apart after about 15 minutes.
i will never forget it.