SONG:
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: “PopSci’s Best of What’s New 2007: Innovators”, Popular Science, December 2007, as used in the post One word: Plastics.
ABSTRACT: I like this story because I think there’s something poetic (and goofy) about turning trash into treasure. It’s really an alchemical goal – Mr. Pringle has created a kind of philosopher’s stone, turning base substance into gold. Except it’s discarded plastic (and, well, anything organic) that’s being turned into oil.
This was very nearly a carnival song called “Mister Pringle’s Amazing Machine,” and then it became sort of an acoustic folk song (with something like the current lyrics), and then I decided I really wanted to record something with a heavy beat on the two and the four, so this is what came out. The twangy bits are from a lap harp the kids in our house got as a Christmas present this year. Everything else is either a nylon string acoustic guitar or bits of someone else’s drums, cut up and remade.