2009

Space Music

My friend Jim Bumgardner has created one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, or rather listened to ever. I’ll let him explain:

I downloaded public data from Hipparcos, a satellite launched by the European Space Agency in 1989 that accurately measured over a hundred thousand stars. The data I downloaded contains position, parallax, magnitude, and color information, among other things.

I used this information to plot the brightest stars, and cause them to revolve about Polaris (the North Star) very slowly, as the stars appear to do. Like the sky itself, this is a 24 hour clock. You’ll notice some familiar constellations, such as the Big Dipper in there. As the stars cross zero and 180 degrees, indicated by the center line, the clock plays an individual note, or chime for each star. The pitch of the chime is based on the star’s BV measurement (which roughly corresponds to color or temperature). The volume is based on the star’s magnitude, or apparent brightness, and the stereo panning is based on the position on the screen…

Here’s the link to the page, I highly recommend fullscreen and the use of headphones. Seriously listening to this is hypnotic, I was it to play constantly in the background of my life. Or at least every sci-fi movie ever made.

Neat little boxes

Now that I’ve figured out how to do this publishing thing I’m moving full steam on an actual written to be published book. What I mean is the content for it isn’t recycled from blog posts. Not that there is anything wrong with that of course, but this stuff is being written with book in mind the whole time. I’m going to actually print this one as well. It’s a collection of non-fiction and autobiographical stories, which maybe is easy mode, but it’s getting me in the habit of writing longer form and I’m really digging it.

That said, while a paperback blog was easy to sort because it was just every worthwhile blogpost from one date to another, this is challenging me a little because it’s stories spanning my whole life. Some are about business, some about friends, some about music, some about travel, etc etc etc which leads me to the following confusion – how to sort them. Chronologically? Topical? This gets especially important if it ends up being too much for one book. I’m not trying to write my autobiography or anything, just recant some stories I think are worth telling. I’ve never been a fan of neat little boxes, and comps I put out while running Toybox were evident of that – screaming metal right next to poppy emo. But I did that for me because it was all stuff I liked, and I guess I’m not sure if I’m writing this for me or for whoever reads it? Well, I mean, I’m writing it for me, but am I also publishing it for me or for someone else. And if it’s for someone else would they prefer to read all the stories from highschool at once – be they nerdy, emo, or punk rock? Or should I stick anything and everything relating to music in one regardless of when it took place?

The other option, which I’m leaning towards and might be obvious is to scrap all organization and just put a collection of stories together until it’s enough for the book then publish it, and if there are more stories then do the same with another book. I kinda figure it’s about me, and all of these pieces which don’t always have to fit together nicely are there so why should I try to have some nice complete puzzle for the book. Is that dumb? I don’t know. I mean, I guess by doing that I eliminate the option for someone to pick it up because they are interested in that specific topic but maybe I don’t mind that. I dunno. What do you think?