Tag Archives: music

FACT: a CD track is five kilometers long

By Ryan | Published: November 23, 2009

I’d like to start off by saying that a CD (compact disc) works very much like a vinyl record, but I’m afraid it would be almost as current to say a CD works much like a telegraph machine. Still, I’ll soldier on with my record analogy, since they both store music (data) in a very [...]

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FACT: everything is hunky-dory since 1868

By Ryan | Published: November 18, 2009

This week there was a lot of hub-bub about “unfriend” becoming the new word of the year. I’ve got nothing against new words, but I do think about all the good old words that are getting pushed out. For example, I’m going to make an effort to this week to pay homage to the great [...]

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FACT: the most influential jazz guitarist was short two fingers

By Ryan | Published: November 10, 2009

If you haven’t heard the name Django Reinhardt in the last 70 years, it’s about time you do. It’s not everyday an artist is able to create and define an entire genre with such mastery that now, over 60 years after his death, jazz guitarists are still trying to sound like him. Gypsy jazz, or [...]

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FACT: sticking a feather in your cap is hardly macaroni

By Ryan | Published: October 26, 2009

Yankee Doodle is probably the most famous song from American history. Sing along with me now… let me hear you in the back! Yankee Doodle went to town Riding on a pony, Stuck a feather in his cap And called it macaroni. Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy, Mind the music and the [...]

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SING-ALONG: a folk-science song that explains how water boils

By Ryan | Published: September 18, 2009

I’m declaring “casual Friday” again, and what’s more casual than a sing-along? It seems that the science-folk genre just isn’t what it used to be, so I’m bringing it back to the limelight. Back in 1959 Tom Glazer teamed up with Dottie Evans to record a series of albums called “Singing Science”. Their little ditties [...]

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HOW-TO: make a musical instrument out of office supplies

By Ryan | Published: September 1, 2009

The fundamentals at work in any stringed instrument are rather simple. The only reason that a guitar might cost upwards of $500 bucks is because of its ability to produce a vibrant sound, its tonal vocabulary, and its aesthetic sensibilities. If we throw all such expectations out the window, we can make a perfectly acceptable [...]

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