The Guild of Scientific Troubadours

Song delayed: penitential cover will be forthcoming.

I’m blowing this month’s deadline in a big way, I think – moving out of my house this week. Many things in boxes. Phone & internet going down.

But the finished thing should be interesting. And a penitential cover song about science. Not sure which to choose, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

Entered on 23 January 2009 at 15:53 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

The Guild was on the air.

And if you’d like to listen, it’s archived over yonder, or if you’d like to download, try this link here.

The excellently edited voice of your guildmaster appears at around the 15:00 mark.

Entered on 17 January 2009 at 4:30 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

The Guild Is In The Loop.

So I just back from recording a segment for In the Loop, a show from Minnesota Public Radio where it is now unspeakably cold.

We talked about science, not music, but hopefully managed to inspire a few listeners regardless. Between my awkward pauses and strange mouth noises, of course.

I’ll post the podcast when it’s up; the show airs Friday at 6 p.m. (in what I’m guessing is Minneapolis time, but might be local to each market).

Does this make me a boffin now?

Entered on 16 January 2009 at 4:00 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Hello, Poindexter.

You may or may not have noticed a new link in the “fellow travellers” area down there on the right.

It’s to Hello, Poindexter!, the blog of Heather D’Angelo, who sometimes tours the world as one-third of the ethereal indie-pop combo Au Revoir Simone, and who sometimes studies Astrophysics at Columbia University.

For a good sense of how these worlds collide, check out her cosmological back-of-the-tour-van interview with Dr. Subodh Patil.

(I found this, as I have found so many good things, via Fluxblog.)

Heather D’Angelo, the Guild of Scientific Troubadours salutes you!

Entered on 26 August 2008 at 6:12 in the Guild Affairs, Music file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Oh, why not?

Vote if you will by clicking the image below:

Entered on 21 July 2008 at 15:05 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

Beautiful (Have A Unique Ringtone).

Because I know that what the internet really needs is more people putting sad, hungry monkeys* on their cellphones, here’s my latest attempt to sell out: ringtones sampled from “Beautiful (Have Another Plum)”.

Even low-fidelity home recordists can make our own ringtones now. Download the format you need here, and enjoy your calls in a way that’s bound to not sound like whoever’s standing next to you.

*Yeah, apes. I know.

Entered on 30 April 2008 at 6:05 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

I’m on Rumblefish.

How very unexpected.

But pleasant nonetheless.

Entered on 27 March 2008 at 6:11 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print

6e+13 picoseconds of silence for Arthur C. Clarke.

Arthur C. Clarke’s last message to the world:

So many of his wishes have already come true.

From the BBC:

“Sir Arthur has left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular,” his secretary, Nalaka Gunawardene, was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

She said the author had requested “absolutely no religious rites of any kind”.

…

When asked why he never patented his idea for communication satellites, he said: “I did not get a patent because I never thought it will happen in my lifetime.”

In the 1940s, he maintained man would reach the moon by the year 2000, an idea dismissed at the time.

…

“Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered,” he recalled recently.

“I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these, I would like to be remembered as a writer.”

His final book, just completed, will be on shelves this November.

If you want to get the flavor of his thinking, here are some selected quotations.

Entered on 19 March 2008 at 14:34 in the Guild Affairs file | 2 Observations |  Print

Opening the channels.

Please hold for connection.

Entered on 1 July 2007 at 14:55 in the Guild Affairs file | Care to make an observation? |  Print