Archive for December, 2008

For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear

December 30, 2008 at 11:26 am · Filed under Cool Audio ·Tagged ,

2008 is quickly passing by with 2009 on its heels, and it’s just about time to bring out the sparklers and party hats. It’s a unique time of year when looking back is just as important as looking forward, when, as the Earth turns, different cultures scream and kiss and ring in the new year in succession with one another.

Few holidays, if any, have such a widely-recognized song attached. New Year’s Eve has a theme song of sorts, and it is no doubt that each year millions will listen to the Scottish folk song, Auld Lang Syne, as they cross into the coming year.

Let Internet Archive DJ your NYE party this year with various versions of the beloved song:

  • In 2005, Comfort Stand Recordings rounded up 25 artists from around the world to create an album collecting different interpretations of Auld Lang Syne.
  • Within the collection of 78 RPMs & Cylinder Recordings, there is a 1910 recording by Frank C. Stanley that could bring a tear to the eye of the sentimental hearted.
  • The U.S. Marine Corps Band performed the traditional song which now sits in the public domain to be shared by all.
  • Scottish native Tony Cuffe offers a traditional version of Auld Lang Syne, taking listeners back to the song’s British Isle’s roots.
  • The first New Year’s broadcast on Channel 4 in 1982 included this version by The Whistlebinkies.
  • Li Cheong arranged the piece for a unique jazz piano interpretation during the 2006 New Year.

    • To further celebrate, watch this episode of The Jack Benny Program for some good cheer and laughter.

    From all of us at Internet Archive, we wish you a very Happy New Year!

    –Cara Binder

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    Get Your Groove Back: Dancing with the Archive

    December 23, 2008 at 11:33 am · Filed under Cool items, movies ·Tagged ,

    Whether your idea of dancing is grabbing your partner to swing round and round or expressing yourself artistically through modern dance or bopping your head to the tunes on an iPod during your morning commute, it’s likely that you’ve danced recently. Dance has always been a universal mode of expression and popular pastime to relax and join in community.

    On the Archive, there are all kinds of examples of how people have shaken their tail feather throughout the ages in different parts of the world. Through dance manuals and videos, we get a unique peer into people’s groove.

    Watch the Moves

  • Young children perform a traditional Spanish folk dance
  • A solo ballet circa 1940, music by Reinhold Gliere
  • A Texan dance group performs an Egyptian belly dance in 2007
  • Footage and interviews from a New York hip hop dance conservatory, a “hip hop boot camp”
  • An ancient-style Japanese dance given in Niigata, Japan in 2001
  • A short clip of late-night club dancing
  • A young girl dancing an Irish jig

    • Read About the Moves

  • An Arden Holt dance manual from 1907 discussing choreography and dance masters
  • A text from 1899 covering the anti-dance stance in which social dance is deemed sinful
  • A 1920 dance manual giving instructions for popular dances of the day
  • Reginald St. Johnson’s book on the history of dance as of 1906
  • A short pamphlet published in 1892 outlining the Highland Fling, a popular dance for children
  • A 1916 manual explaining proper dance positions
  • A manual dating back to 1735 offers an explanation of their modern dancing

    • Take some notes from these various styles and have some fun at the club, in the car, or on stage…your dance venue is up to you.

    –Cara Binder

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    Tales of the Live Music Archive

    December 22, 2008 at 11:03 am · Filed under Cool Audio ·Tagged , ,

    It’s quite tempting to visit Internet Archive’s Live Music Archive and be drawn to the bands you’re familiar with and adore. Grateful Dead, Smashing Pumpkins, Jason Mraz, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Guster all beg you to choose their name, boasting 300+ shows and countless downloads. Don’t get me wrong, I can click on some of those bands all day and get completely wrapped up in their myriad of live shows. One of the joys of the Archive, however, is to get exposed to those smaller bands that either are on the brink of making it big or have met their demise years ago with only the Archive paying them homage.

    Here’s a teaser list of what you can find in the LMA with just a few clicks of the mouse:

  • Acoustic Vibration Appreciation Society is classic North Carolinian bluegrass that will make you dance.
  • Sara Petite, a singer/songwriter from the West coast, has a charming music style with meaningful lyrics.
  • Shell Stamps Band is a jam-band of sorts, a side project of the more well-known Ancient Harmony.
  • Betsy Franck and the Bareknuckle Band is a fun, worthwhile listen. They’re a gutsy, bluesy group from Georgia.
  • Charlie Parr is a supremely talented folk/bluegrass artist hailing from Minneapolis. You’ll hear washboards backing up Parr’s strong voice.
  • Madgrass offers a collection of covers with their own twangy spin. Covers include songs by Neil Young, Grateful Dead, and Old Crow Medicine Show.
  • The Microphones, fronted by Phil Elvrum and later renamed Mount Eerie, is an indie-rock band. The good, genuine kind of indie-rock with unique sounds and heartfelt lyrics.
  • The Strawberry Allstars, a pop electronic band from Maine, will surprise you with their creative use of fast techno sounds infused with a strong beat and interesting vocals.

    • Of course, there are valid reasons that some bands only have a couple shows uploaded and zero downloads, but, sometimes, those are just as much fun to find.

    –Cara Binder

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    Preservation for Home Movies

    December 16, 2008 at 11:58 am · Filed under Cool Movies ·Tagged , , ,

    Home movies all too often get relegated to basements where they sit with recordings of made-for-TV movies or other equally-neglected videos. Of course, there are always the semi-annual walks down memory lane where people pull out the documentation of times past, but as a general rule, our home movies are going the way of dinosaurs.

    It is time that these gems are celebrated, and this is just the goal of the Center for Home Movies. By protecting and archiving our home movies, we can gradually create a history of our culture through moving images. At Internet Archive, a family’s epic camping trip or a 1960s South African dance ceremony can be shared, giving everyone the intimate experience of gathering around a television to screen forgotten home movies.

    Here is a sampling of entertaining amateur films that have gained freedom from their dusty basement status, documenting cultural heritage for years to come:

    A 16-year-old’s dramatic interpretation of Tarzan

    A peek into the life of the Kelly family in Lebanon, Kentucky circa 1938

    Footage of a New York pride parade during the first decade of gay pride marches

    A filmmaker’s tribute to Kodachrome 40 Super 8, a popular film making device that has been discontinued

    A short English film about a gentle boy scout who befriends a sheep

    A rare look into the happenings of a Californian backyard in 1949

    A film from the 1970s; scenes range from young people playing guitars to a street photographer to a child playing outside

    Please add to the growing collection at Internet Archive. Keep your footage safe while sharing in a collective vision to archive our heritage. If you have uploaded a home movie on the archive and would like it added to this collection, please contact skip@avgeeks.com.

    –Cara Binder

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    Picklist #3

    December 11, 2008 at 12:25 am · Filed under Cool Audio, Cool Movies, Cool items

    Some random morsels from the Internet Archive collections:

    1. Paul Otlet (pronounced ot-LAY; 1868-1944) is considered the “father” of information science. A Belgian lawyer and visionary, he aspired to create a central repository of all human knowledge. From the 1920s until the Nazis took Brussels, he began to build such a collection, called the Mundaneum, which housed a massive catalog made up of millions of 3×5 index cards. Each card contained data pulled from books for indexing and reuse. Otlet is considered by some to be the forefather of the World Wide Web. His 1934 magnum opus Traite de Documentation (Treaties on Documentation: The Book of the Book) has yet to be translated into English, but the Archive has digitized a collection of his essays.

    In the Archive’s Moving Image collection you’ll also find a 1998 documentary about Otlet, made for Dutch television and entitled Alle Kennis van de Wereld (“All the Knowledge of the World”). The documentary (23 min) is narrated by Boyd Rayward, Otlet’s biographer. It is in both English and French (and, unfortunately, has no subtitles).

    (See also Alex Wright’s 6/17/08 New York Times article, “The Web Time Forgot,” which discusses Otlet’s Mundaneum.)

    2. Arabian Nights with twenty color illustrations by the renowned French illustrator Edmond Dulac (1882-1953). Published by Hodder & Stoughton (1907).

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    3. Pete Seeger interviewed by Tim Robbins, “The Ballad of Pete Seeger,” an original radio documentary celebrating Pete Seeger’s life and times, and featuring a candid conversation with actor Tim Robbins and historic audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives. 4 DVDs and 2 CDs

    4.  The most popular item in the Live Music Archive, with nearly 2.5 million downloads, is OfARevolution (O.A.R.) Live at Madison Square Garden on January 14, 2006.  This Archive volunteer had never heard of the group before today, but according to the New York Times review of the 2006 show, the Columbus, Ohio, band has achieved success “by playing concerts nonstop and by encouraging fans to share recordings.”

    5.210px-toscaniniconducting4 Beethoven’s Symphony # 6, Pastoral.

    Legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Recorded over several sessions from June-October 1937 at Queen’s Hall, London. Transferred and restored from the original 78 RPM RCA Victor set M-417 by Bob Varney.

    6. Bach’s Air on the G String and the estimable Sixth Suite for Unaccompanied Cello  make up concert 22 (Bach’s Songs of Strings) of the podcast collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  This entire collection of 22 concerts is terrific.

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