Continuing our mini-tradition of filling your Fridays with useless video, Telstar Logistics presents this week's installment: "Woman Stripped by Mechanical Shovel." Yes, it's pretty much as described, and thankfully it's more or less safe for work. It's also from Italy, so we assume it goes well with pasta -- a farfalle, no doubt.
(Tip of the hard hat to Ninavizz!)
Merry weekending!
Proprietary platforms vs. industry standards ... closed kernels vs. open source .. the cathedral vs. the bazaar... those are familiar fault lines to anyone who has followed the Great Intellectual Property Debate that has taken place in the IT and software industries for the last three decades. Yet that same debate is also playing itself out right now in the defense sector (of all places), where an attempt is underway to liberate the cockpit interface used in many Pentagon unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the proprietary grip of the company that manufactures them.
It's fascinating, actually. San Diego-based General Atomics currently manufactures both the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs that have been used so extensively by US forces in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan. The UAVs are unmanned, of course, but they're not autonomous robots — most are piloted remotely by pilots who sit in cockpit-like ground control stations that act as the primary interface between the soldiers and their machines. Since the UAVs were developed by General Atomics, General Atomics also sells all the ground control stations, because the company holds a proprietary lock on the technology used to link the aircraft to their human controllers.
Raytheon wants to change that. At the moment, Raytheon is making an unsolicited bid to sell the Pentagon a new, open-platform version of the standard UAV ground-control station. In the magazine's 10 Nov. issue, Aviation Week reports:
Arguing the USAF is held hostage by the platform primes with their proprietary interfaces, Raytheon [business development director Mark Bigham] says: “The [current ground-control station] is an afterthought. The primes will always spend their independent research and development funding on the aircraft. All we focus on is the ground.” He says the CGCS (common ground control system) would reduce training costs and losses caused by human factors and “pay for itself in three years.”
Submitted in September, Raytheon’s unsolicited proposal is to provide an open interface control document which the government would own and give to UAV primes; to develop the core GCS software; and to provide three MQ-1B systems flight-certified with the new open interface.
In the event General Atomics refuses to open its Predator interface, Bigham says, the proposal includes an option for the Air Force to “send us three aircraft and we’ll take out the proprietary stuff, put open interfaces in and give them back three flight-certificated aircraft. All we are asking them to be is open.”
Raytheon believes an open GCS is inevitable. “There will be a competition in 2009,” predicts Bigham. “If General Atomics fights too hard, the Air Force will shut off the Predator program. The MQ-1B will be isolated and they will have won the battle, but lost the war.”
Get that? Raytheon is threatening to reverse-engineer a Predator UAV. Just like Compaq did to IBM's choke hold on BIOS, or much like what Linux has done to Microsoft's control over Wintel. Raytheon wants to do the same to General Atomics's lock on UAV ground-control systems.
But what's so bad about the current General Atomics UAV control stations? Telstar Logistics did some supplementary Googling, which brought us to this thoughful blog posting about the limitations of the existing General Atomics user-interface:
Pilots of UAVs are hoping for
improvements in the cockpit. Currently, though there are control sticks like
that of an aircraft, they do not function entirely like a traditional control
stick and most of the interface is done through the keyboard, especially when
the autopilots are engaged which is most of the time. Beyond this, the cockpits
are not the most optimized ergonomic environments for pilots with lots of
functionality in awkward places. What they need and desperately want is
something that looks more like a cockpit with a stick and throttle that behave
like a stick and throttle and dials and gages instead of little number readouts
on computer displays. Also and perhaps even more importantly, having the
ability to have a wider field of view which is critically important for
situational awareness [...]
[O]ne of
the student pilots was complaining about the difficulty in landing when he
realized that there is no difference in sensitivity of the control stick in
flight mode versus landing mode and he noted that even his flight control stick
connected to his Microsoft Flight Simulator had a landing mode
that would reduce the sensitivity allowing for more slop necessary for slower
air speeds over the control surfaces. The same is also true for the fly by wire
F-16. When you put the gear down, the flight control system changes gains in
the movement of the control surfaces relative to movements in the flight
controls. The question is "why does not the Predator or Reaper control systems
have this functionality? The standard military answer is simply "because it
doesn't", however the reality is a bit more complicated than that and is due to
the supply chain of these aircraft being a sole source proprietary system. The
Air Force takes what General Atomics gives them and if General Atomics is not
really interested in providing these things to the pilots, then the Air Force
does not get it.
It will be most curious to watch how the General Atomics vs. Raytheon dogfight plays out in the months ahead.
PREVIOUSLY:
Ultimate Mashup: NASA's Predator UAV and Google Earth Join Forces to Fight Fires in California
(IMAGES:Top: Pilots in a Predator UAV ground control station, and a Reaper UAV takes flight. Photos by BWJones. Midle, UAV control station closeup, by hudson. Bottom, UAV operator, from Defenselink.)
Built during the 1950s, Nike missiles were anti-aircraft weapons designed to shoot down Soviet bombers before they could drop their deadly payloads on American soil. The missiles themselves were equipped with either nuclear or conventional warheads, and a total of more than 300 Nike batteries were erected around America's major cities, where they operated until the early 1970s. In the Bay Area alone there were two dozen Nike sites scattered around the region, but SF-88 is the only one in the country that remains more or less intact.
Operated under the auspices of the National Park Service and maintained by a staff of devoted volunteers, SF-88 retains most of the equipment and hardware that was used when the battery was operational.
Apart from several of the old missiles, the underground missile storage facilities are also restored, and visitors can even ride up and down the elevator that carried the rockets into firing position. Wheeee!
And now for a refreshing dose of retrofuturism....
Filmed in 1956, the following video is part of a Walt Disney series called "Man and the Moon" that envisioned the technology that would enable human space travel. As is so often the case with these sorts of things, the imagined future turned out to significantly more gee-whiz than the subsequent reality, but that's just part of the fun. No less fun is the narrator, the eminent scientist Werner von Braun, who describes the rockets and space stations of tomorrow in a parody-perfect German accent. Buckle up your space suit, and enjoy the ride:
(Tip of the space visor to the Angry Pirate)
PREVIOUSLY:
When we arrived at Bernal Speedway in San Francisco to take in the 2008 running of the Illegal Soapbox Derby, some unpleasantness ensued between the racers and several representatives of the San Francisco Police Department. It seems the Parks Department had received a pre-race complaint from someone in the Bernal Heights Temperance and Abstinence League, and the cops were under orders to put the kibosh on the event. (According to the police, San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano had attempted to intervene on behalf of the Soapbox Derby, but to no avail -- Ammiano was overruled by the bureaucrats at the Parks Department. Thanks for trying, Tom!)
Major buzzkill.
After some futile and frustrating attempts at negotiation, the crowd dispersed peacefully and relocated (no less peacefully) to an another gravity-rich location elsewhere in the city.
The backup race course was steeper, narrower, and more curvy than Bernal Hill, which changed the tone of the racing dramatically. Check out this g-forcing, wheel-lifting action! Action! ACTION:
Suffice to say, we will not provide much advance notice of the Illegal Soapbox Derby Races in 2009, to ensure that a repeat of this year's SFPD unpleasantness does not occur. You'll be on your own to figure out the date. But when you do, Telstar Logistics be there too, and we look forward to saying hello.
Lots more photos fro 2008, below:
LINK:
The Really Really Illegal 2008 Soapbox Derby (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)
UPDATE 11/3/08 12:42 pm: Via Jocelyn, here's a video of the SFPD talking to the crowd. The officer in charge was friendly enough, at least, and he confessed that he used to race soapbox cars down Russian Hill (illegally) when he was a kid:
PREVIOUSLY:
Photos! Photos! Photos! of the Action! Action! Action! at the 2007 Illegal Soapbox Derby
The 2006 Illegal Soapbox Derby (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)
The 2005 Illegal Soapbox Derby (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)
(IMAGES: All photos by Telstar Logistics)
This is a clean version of a most excellent FAA graphic Telstar Logistics saw on a wall at Moffett Federal Airfield after we went flying on a Zeppelin earlier this week.
The image is a pilot's guide to the air traffic routes used at airports around the San Francisco Bay Area -- a roadmap of the highways in our skies. It's illuminating, because it reveals the patterns that guide the jets which fly above our Global Headquarters each day. It all seems kind of random to us from the ground, but thanks to this graphic, the logic that guides those planes is now easy to see.
PREVIOUSLY:
"Flight thru Instruments" and the Fine Art of Instructional Illustration
It's election season here at the Telstar Logistics Global Headquarters, and having already expressed our concern about extraterrestrial influences on the man who may well be the next president of the United States, we would now like to draw your attention to Proposition 1A, an initiative that will appear on the California ballot on November 4.
Prop 1A would authorize the State of California to issue $10 billion in bonds to fund the construction of a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Having experienced travel by high-speed rail both on France's TGV and on Japan's Shinkansen networks, Telstar Logistics strongly supports Prop 1A as a worthwhile infrastructure investment. Here's why:
1. HIGH SPEED RAIL IS GREAT FOR OUR ECONOMY
Amid the ongoing financial crisis and the threat of global recession (or worse), now is the time to invest in infrastructure. As left-leaning, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman recently put it:
Meanwhile, right-leaning columnist David Brooks writes:
A major infrastructure initiative would create jobs for the less-educated workers who have been hit hardest by the transition to an information economy. It would allow the U.S. to return to the fundamentals. There is a real danger that the U.S. is going to leap from one over-consuming era to another, from one finance-led bubble to another. Focusing on infrastructure would at least get us thinking about the real economy, asking hard questions about what will increase real productivity, helping people who are expanding companies rather than hedge funds.
2. HIGH SPEED RAIL IS GOOD FOR OUR ENVIRONMENT
Electric-powered high-speed rail is a more sustainable alternative to fossil-powered cars and aircraft. As regular readers of this Internet weblog know... we LOVE cars and aircraft. But high-speed rail gets us to our destination more sensibly. According to the California High Speed Rail Authority, by 2030 a high-speed rail network would offer multiple sustainability advantages:
3. HIGH SPEED RAIL IS FASTER AND MORE COMFORTABLE
At present, it takes roughly 5 hours to drive between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and roughly 3 hours to fly (including airport travel time, check-in, and security screening). Using high-speed trains that zip along at 220 mph, travel time between downtown SF and downtown LA would be reduced to about 2 hours 40 minutes. Just imagine strolling into the train station and stepping aboard a train like this:
Just as importantly, however, travel between these two great cities would become vastly more comfortable. Today, the drive along Interstate 5 is long and boring, while air travel is increasingly nightmarish.
In contrast, our overseas experiences with high-speed rail have been notably civilized. For example, here's a view of two happy travelers enjoying the clean, comfortable ride aboard a Japanese bullet train:
3. HIGH SPEED RAIL IS SEXY!
High-speed rail isn't just fast -- it's downright sexy. Check out this view of a Japanese Shinkansen waiting to pick up passengers at Tokyo Station:
Even better, check out this photo we took inside the Lounge Car of a TGV train zipping across the French countryside at 200 mph. C'est super-chic, non?
People, this is California. California *does* sexy. Sexy is what the California lifestyle is all about. Being good at being sexy is one of the Golden State's core competitive advantages. Apple Computer? Sexy! Hollywood? Sexy! Napa Valley wineries? Sexy! Governor Schwarzenegger? Machosexy! You get the point.
To maintain our leadership position, California cannot allow ourselves to be out-sexed by the likes of France or Japan. Without high-speed rail, California will face a Sexiness Gap that will only become more glaring with the passage of time. This cannot stand.
What more is there to say? High-speed rail is cleaner, faster, more pleasant, and more glamorous than current transportation alternatives, and it would provide us with a much-needed dose of infrastructure improvement to boot. For all these reasons, Telstar Logistics encourages Californians to vote YES on Prop 1A.
California High-Speed Rail (Official website)
Yes on 1A (Official website)
Ballotpedia.org California Prop 1A Summary
PREVIOUSLY:
Is Barack Obama a Borg "Manchurian Candidate?"
Two Videos of Avant Garde Musicians and Transportation
(IMAGES:Artists' renderings by the California High Speed Rail Authority. TGV and Shinkansen photos by Telstar Logistics)
After the Hindenburg debacle, Zeppelins largely disappeared from the skies... until recently, when the Zeppelin Company was reconstituted to begin building rigid-framed airships for use by sightseeing tour operators. Last weekend, the first US-based Zeppelin arrived at it's new home in the San Francisco Bay Area, and yesterday Telstar Logistics was invited to go for a quick test flight.
Operated by a startup called Airship Ventures, the Zeppelin NT will be based out of Moffett Field, Calfornia -- a fitting home, as Moffett was built by the US Navy during the 1920s to serve as a base for military dirigibles.
The new Zeppelins are filled with the inert helium instead of highly flammable hydrogen, they're only about one-quarter the size of than the old giants, and they're equipped with modern technology and avionics. Power is delivered by three Lycoming engines that put out around 200 horsepower each, and the airship frame is constructed from a combination of of aluminum and carbon fiber.
Boarding an airship is not at all like boarding a conventional aircraft, because an airship doesn't sit still; it tends to bob and sway as the wind blows the big balloon around. As a result, climbing on board the Zeppelin is a bit like stepping from a stable dock onto a boat that's rocking on a gentle sea.
The cabin is airy, spacious, and surprisingly quiet, so it's easy to forget that you're in an aircraft at all. Once aloft, the most essential aspect of an airship's sightseeing appeal soon became obvious: slowness. Even when in motion, the Zeppelin NT felt like it was hovering, so taking in the sights was very relaxing — especially from the big rear window near the loveseat. How's this for a view?
Landing was much the same -- a graceful cruise to a lower altitude that was pretty much elevator-like in its smoothness.
Indeed, for regular passengers, the most jarring aspect of the experience may well be the price: Airship Ventures will charge $536 per passenger per hour of flight. That's steep, to be sure, but on an hourly basis the fee is comparable to that of conventional helicopter tours. Plus you get the added satisfaction of being able to brag to your friends that you've flown on a Zeppelin.
If you can't swing it, however, we took lots of photos so you can at least get a taste of travel by airship. It's the wave of the future, you know...
LINK:
Aloft in a Zeppelin (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)
Airship Ventures (Company website)
PREVIOUSLY:
The Fight to Save Hangar One, Silicon Valley's Monument to the Age of the Airships
(IMAGES: All photos by Telstar Logistics)
As usual, we heard it from our man who got the signal from the field operative who read it on an encrypted message board that was monitored by the National Security Agency. The encoded transmission read as follows: The 2008 Illegal Soapbox Derby Races will take place on Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY! November 2, 2008, beginning at around 1 pm on Bernal Speedway high above scenic San Francisco.
Never mind all that commercial soapbox derby nonsense, and all their stinkin' lawyers. (Hay bales? Hay bales? Hay bales are for the weak!) Only the Illegal Soapbox Derby Society delivers the liability-inducing thrill of under-engineered racing machines hurling out-of-control down a perilous mountain race course!
It's Newtonian-fueled excitement from your first sip of PBR to the taste of glory that awaits at the bottom of the hill. So be there! Be there! BE THERE! And if you need any more convincing, here's a nifty little video from last year's event:
PREVIOUSLY:
Photos! Photos! Photos! of the Action! Action! Action! at the 2007 Illegal Soapbox Derby
The 2006 Illegal Soapbox Derby (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)
The 2005 Illegal Soapbox Derby (Flickr photoset by Telstar Logistics)
(Photos by Telstar Logistics)
Alexander Rose from the Long Now Foundation recently returned from what may be the world's most amazing trade show: The Mine Expo International 2008, held in Las Vegas, Nevada. For anyone who's a fan of giant dump trucks, esoteric drilling machines, and industrial explosives — us! us! us! — this confab for professionals in the mining and mineral-extraction industries looks like a definite must-see.
Earlier in September the Millennium Clock design team had an all hands meeting at the Las Vegas Mining Expo . It is only held once every 4 years as it is so difficult and expensive for the companies to bring their machinery there. Since we are planning on using a combination of mining and quarrying techniques (as well as inventing some new rock removal methods), it seemed like a good opportunity to see the state of the mining industry. In addition Greg Baiden, our mining engineer, was showing his latest robotic scoop truck at the show that uses light pulses to transmit video and data. My three main take aways from the event:
- We all agreed that it was hands down the coolest trade show any of us have EVER attended. Sign up now for the next one in 02012 and give yourself two days to see it all.
- It is amazing to me that - with the exception of Greg’s stuff - that there was basically no robotics on display there. This is bizarre for an industry that has huge labor costs and the most dangerous work environment in the world.
- The machines we build to extract metals and minerals from the earth are the most terrifying machines in the world.
No word on what kind of conference schwag Alex scooped up during his visit, but we can only assume it was vastly more interesting than the usual LinuxOracleJavaWinDevWorld tote bags and mousepads.
(Tip of the hard hat: Kevin Kelly)
LINKS:
Mining Show 2008 (Picassa photoset by Alexander Rose)
Our Lust for Metal is Great (Long Now blog post by Alexander Rose)
MINExpo International (Official trade show website)
(IMAGES: All photos, courtesy of Alexander Rose)
It was a lovely wedding, but something about it smelled a little... smokey.
The wedding took place last weekend, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the town of Lucia, California, not far from Big Sur. Telstar Logistics was on hand when the bride and groom were joined in matrimony, but off in the distance, we were distracted by the deep thumping sound of spinning helicopter blades.
Looking to the south, we could see firefighting choppers dipping their water buckets into the cold Pacific water to battle In a forest fire was burning out of control a few miles away:
By the next morning, as we brunched on pastries and eggs, the fire had grown larger and more ominous... and the helicopters were still hard at work. So we went to get a closer look.
We arrived just in time to watch one of the helis as it was arriving for a water refill. It was N699RH, a Kaman Aerospace Corp K-1200 firefighting helicopter operated by Ranier Heli-Lift. Having never seen a Kaman helicopter before -- or even heard of them, for that matter -- we did some research to find out more.
The Kaman is a strange-looking beast: It's thin as a rail, with a bulbous cockpit and twin rotors mounted on opposite sides of the fuselage. Very insectoid. But form follows function, it seems, as the Kaman is a workhorse helicopter "specifically designed, tested and certified for repetitive external lift operations and vertical reference flight." The Wikipedia explains:
Known as a synchropter, there are two main rotors, which are mounted side-by-side. Each rotor is angled away from the other, and they counter-rotate, thus intermeshing and providing not only lift, but also countering the torque of the other rotor. All of the engine power goes toward lift, with no parasitic loss to power a secondary torque rotor, as found in conventional helicopters. The power transmission and control systems are thus simpler, as well. Control is through the use of servo-flaps mounted on the trailing edge of each rotor. The arrangement also makes for extremely quiet operation compared to other helicopters.
Although only 38 Kaman K-1200s have been built, it seems the US military is also investigating the development of an unmanned version that might be used for combat supply and troop transport in Iraq and Afghanistan.
PS: Congratulations to the happy couple, Fred and Christine, with best wishes for all that lies ahead!
LINK:
Kaman Aerospace K-MAX (Official company website)
PREVIOUSLY:
Helitack 406: A Firefighting Helicopter in California
DC-10 Fire Tanker Joins the Fight Against SoCal Blazes
Hovercraft Save California Island from Raging Wildfire
(PHOTOS by Telstar Logistics)
Although it only reminds us of how much we miss the SS Independence, there's a new tenant at the BAE Shipyard in San Francisco: the Princess Cruises liner Star Princess. At more than 900 feet from end to end, the Star Princess is basically like a oceangoing version of a Las Vegas hotel, with accommodations for 2600 passengers and 1600 crew.
We haven't made it on board, but Flickr user Jasperdo posted a nice set of photos taken during a recent cruise on the Star Princess, which is the next best thing. That crazy-looking cabin perched off the stern like a Formula One spoiler? That's the Skywalker Nightclub — an glitzy disco that apparently looks like this from the inside:
Here's the indoor Pool:
Here's the scene inside the Tutankhamun-inspired Explorer's Lounge:
Here are the acommodations inside cabin B332:
And here's the inevitable view from the Promenade Deck:
While hauled up in drydock, the Star Princess dominates San Francisco's southern waterfront, but just like any other tourist passing through town... it won't be here for long
LINKS:
Star Princess (official Princess Cruises webpage)
Star Princess (Wikiepedia entry)
Star Princess (165 photos of Flickr travelogue by a former Star Princess passenger)
PREVIOUSLY:
Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence
(PHOTOS: Star Princess in drydock by Telstar Logistics. All interior photos by Jasperdo.)
Because it's Friday, and because it's been that kind of a week, what the world needs right about now is a goofy video of a gas station 76 ball spinning dreamily under a perfect blue sky.
Fortunately, we happen to have just that, as filmed on August 25, 2008 at the corner of Geary and Stanyan Streets in San Francisco, California. With it we include a matching soundtrack: "Tijuana Taxi," performed by the incomparable Ron Rhode and his Wurlitzer Theater Pipe Organ. It's 90 seconds of escapism, provided to you as a public service by Telstar Logistics.
Happy weekending!
PREVIOUSLY:
Saving the 76 Ball, for Tomorrow's Children
NEWS FLASH! 76 Ball Granted Reprieve; ConocoPhillips Awakens to Error; Fans Celebrate, Buy Gas
Okay, so you may not own the big plot of land you'll need to buy an old Boeing 747 jumbo jet and convert it into your very own home sweet home. And you may not have the deep pockets required to enjoy all the comforts of home available in the first class cabin of an Emirates A380 superjumbo. But if you happen to find yourself in Stockholm, Sweden later this year, you can probably afford to spend a night at the Jumbo Hostel, a new hotel that's being constructed inside the shell of a retired Boeing 747-200.
Telstar Logistics Special Swedish Correspondent David Larson brings us his translation of an article about the Jumbo Hotel that ran in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 29 August, 2008:
Jumbo Jet Becomes Hostel
Anyone who is tired of ordinary hotels will be able to get an unusual experience at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. In December the first ever hostel in a jumbo jet will open.
The plane that will be a symbol for the airport, a Boing 747-200, was towed yesterday to it's final stop at the entrance of Arlanda Airport. The old charter plane was decommissioned in 2002, but has now been bought by Oscar Diös who was the initiator of the project and onboard during it's move.
"An incredible feeling. I'm extremely happy," he says.
Oscar Diös has previously run a hostel in Uppsala. Now he wants to give the 17-18 million visitors who pass by the airport every year a unique accommodation option.
The interior renovation of the jumbo jet will begin today, and when finished there will 25 rooms a wedding suite in the cockpit. Quite a few changes will be made to distinguish this plane from the ones still flying. For example, guests will be able to stroll on the wing and they will not have to use cramped toilets with push doors.
All told, the hotel will have 85 beds, with most rooms using shared bathrooms located along the corridor of the main deck. Each room will have a flat-panel TV and wireless internet access. The upper deck luxury/wedding suite will retain some of the original aircraft fittings, and if you need to catch a flight from Arlanda in the morning, there's no need for a taxi -- the Jumbo Hostel is just a 10 minute walk from the airport's main terminal.
LINK:
Jumbo Hostel (Official website)
PREVIOUSLY:
Psssst! Who Wants to Buy a Used Boeing 747, CHEAP?
(IMAGES: All photos courtesy of the Jumbo Hostel)
Like peanut butter and chocolate, or bacon and just about anything, avant garde music mixes quite nicely with the infrastructure of transportation. Not knowing much about music theory, we can't really explain why this is. But the reasons hardly matter.
What matters is that when you combine machine-powered motion with atonal music, the synthesis can be very satisfying. Here are two videos that demonstrate the point.
The first is a looped video produced by Telstar Logistics that combines some footage we filmed while gazing out the window of a "Shinkansen" bullet train speeding through the Japanese landscape somewhere between Tokyo and Kyoto. At the time when we recorded the video, we happened to be listening to a magnificent piece of avant garde music on our iPod: "Another Root," by Midori Hirano:
Midori Hirano (b.1979 in Kyoto) began piano lessons at the age of five and later continued her musical studies in college. After graduation, Midori moved to Tokyo and began to compose music in her own way by blending computer textures with traditional music theory. This turned out to be a natural step leading to her current activities in electronic music.
Hirano's music is haunting and atmoshpheric, and highly recommended. But as you can see, when you listen to it while the Japanese countryside passes by in a 200+ mph blur, the effect is positively sublime:
Meanwhile, we recently stumbled upon a very satisfying video of avant garde cellist Zoë Keating performing a movable concert aboard a converted school bus in San Francisco. Zoë describes herself as:
"Classically trained from the age of eight, Zoë developed her signature style improvising for late night crowds in her San Francisco warehouse space. [...] Comfortably inhabiting her own territory somewhere between classical minimalism, experiemental electronica and steampunk, Keating's works have been called luminous, haunting and "the perfect music for apocalyptic landscapes."
This video of her perfomance on a bus comes to us courtesy of seany, and it may be experienced here:
Note also: Zoe Keating will carry carry the transportation theme still further on August 29, when she will perform at the pre-security area of the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport between 11 am and 2 pm, as part of airport's You Are Hear at SFO concert series.
We're confident the combination will taste wonderful.
LINKS:
Midori Hirano (artist's website)
Midori Hirano at Archive.org (open-source audio posted by Midori Hirano)
Zoe Keating (Artist's website)
(IMAGE: Top, Midori Hirano on the iPod. Photo by Telstar Logistics)
