"We are observing your Earth"

I don't usually listen to my iPod with headphones, but tonight I am. I am even using crappy earbuds. It's not bad. So I am writing, blogging, chatting with my boss, and doing a project for Kathy. And I've been listening to one of my favorite records, Every Man and Woman Is A Star by Ultramarine.

So, the track "Gravity" has this great loop where an alien voice goes "we are observing your Earth!" And then a female voice goes "Mother Earth." Great stuff. I wrote about this record almost one year ago in my 5 Secret Albums post.

So, now I know where that sample comes from! A while back, Aaron made a UFO mix on 8tracks, and it rocked, and I found him some other stuff, including a really, really, really bad song by The Carpenters. Well, that song ("Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft") has a strange intro where a DJ gets a call from aliens, and THAT IS THEM TALKING!!!! This Ultramarine record has so many cool samples in it. I really like the Steve Miller samples; there's also a cool Laurie Anderson sample from USLive when a Native American storyteller says "It was up in the mountains / We had this ceremony every year." That phrase kicks off the record, and it comes from one of the more compelling moments of US Live, which was like my most favoriteist record thing back in high school.

I miss my mom a lot tonight.

Not a great transition from missing my mom, but I just came back here to add some links and I was reminded of the whole heaven's gate thing. Remember that? I was still living in Lansing then, still using that first Dell computer then (1997), and I remember hitting their web that night--the night they castrated and killed themselves. That web site is still there--a giant, collaborative, cyber-suicide note. That is like exactly what the web mostly looked like back in 1997.

RED ALERT--Last chance to evacuate Earth before it is recycled.

So I am finally going off to bed I think, after many false starts. This was a hard weekend. But looking back at that 5 Secret Records post made me remember to burn a copy of Towa Tei's Future Listening! for Bill. He really needs to hear this record. This one begins with a sample, soo "I want to relax, please." A YouTuber thinks: "I think the opening vocal sample comes from an English dub of the Italian film "The 10th Victim (La decima vittima)" [when Marcello Mastroianni checks in]."

I'll leave you (as if you are someone specific--how many times did I get after students for this?) with the brilliant video that got me hooked on Towa Tei. I saw it on the MTV show AMP when I couldn't sleep during my comprehensive exams. I just love that little white dog. There are some great NASA samples in there, too.





Oh, and I still want a "Thinking Suit" just like Towa has here. I wonder what the significance of the third arm is. Could be something as simple as the fact that a thinking suit needs permanent Rodin-like chin stroking. Who knows? There was this woman in Sweden who thought she had a third arm, and neurologists agreed. Aren't you glad you read this crap? There I go again with you.