02/20/05--(10.50 p.m.GMT)
numberless times has this tale been told
before even man was the story old
eternal joy rolled inheld sorrow
still motion overcomes deathlike woe
in the tale of the Tamlinmediaco
Ran a day late because the song is quite long (20 minutes) and heavily orchestrated. Greetz to all
A little further research turned up the fact that as I had originally thought Lawrence Lessing's book, "Free Culture" is available and downloadable under the creative commons copyright. He doesn't go into great legalistic detail, as one might expect from a Professor of Law at Stanford University, but in everyday language tells the reader exactly how and why it is in corporate interest to limit what we know to that which is tightly controlled.
As well he makes a further point by saying that we cannot expect a business not to seek to maximize it's standing in a marketplace. I know, myself, no matter how nice you want to be to the customer and your vendors you are constrained by what the competitors do. The failure, and this is important to realize not only in business but media as well, is not that business ethics have changed radically, it is that the government has not been taking care of it's responsibilities. There's an old fashioned word for it, that seems to have gone out ostyle-- corruption.
Next is the
everongoing cathartic rant
And also I am again very pleased to inform you that
the film to Jack's Exciting Adventure has been accepted by the Internet Archive and is available there for downloading
To those who may have downloaded the films and wonder what they are about I can say these are only the beginning, version 1.0's and the technical side of things will definitely improve. We want to turn the liability of no budget in a new artform, moving paintings. Basically to do what we did in these two weeks in Hollywood would cost in the range of four million dollars and we owe a lot to Prelinger because at this point it is very difficult to find public domain footage. The problem is not so much finding it, as getting the clearances. I like what the AMV (anime music video) people do, but that is laible to fold anytime the rights owners want and we have to keep the song quality at maximum.
At some point we'll be hiring actors and production people but the pieces will never be "rock videos", nor "standing around opera," They will be something else. Wish us luck --- we'll need it.
Tamlin (here's ALF)
Dear Kathleen MP3
The Lyric to Dear Kathleen
"I look in the mirror to comb my hair
I see your face just standing there
got nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,
nowhere to run, nowhere to hide"
(martha and the vandellas)
the alf
02/13/05--(5.50 a.m.GMT)
slight return
and here's something different
As promised the film made to accompany the song "Saucers in the Storm is available on the Internet Archive --HERE- There are three versions, the best quality being the hibandwidth MP-4 version and in addition there's a lower quality Mp-4 version and a Divx version for fans of that Codec.
Also for devotees of the Hotline network I made a special very low bandwith version (44meg) of the film which can be found on Pop-Eye. At that site as well there's a back catelog of ALF's tunes going back about two years. The Hotline network is more of a private, BBS, thing and in case you don't know you'll need a dedicated client app. Should you choose to use the client, once into the network it is suggested that you DL an older version then 1.9 because there are strong indications it contains spyware. Do a little homework and you'll be okay.
The film for Jack's Exciting Aventure is done in rough cut form. All that needs doing is final cut, credit scroll and compiling in various versions. So it will take a few days at most.
I've thanked Red Bol and Cuppa before but would like to do so again and add to that thanks to the Internet Archive and am looking forward to a long fruitful relationship with the Open Source Media Community and public.
Oh, and yeah, neither network, nor Apple Computers has any editorial say, nor have sought to impose any editorial restrictions on us - S0 don't blame them:-)
-Norma Deren
02/12/05--(9.35 p.m.GMT)
Ano uno opto
The Tamlinmediaco
In any great war, such as we now wage against the forces of concentrated wealth, what is needed above all is love. Love of song, love of freedom, love of a way of life and love of being paid. :-)
But love can arrive and depart quickly and the battle is long. The enemy knows this and counts on it to discourage us. To prevent this happening we must have drill and discipline. When our fellows go down we must continue. We keep the hurt inside for another day. When the enemy tells us we are making mountains of molehills and their choruses of paid camp followers, mourners and promoters shout in agreement we turn deaf ear. If their words were true there would be no battle for there would be nothing of ours they had taken and nothing for us to gain and retain.
So, if this rant is repetitive and those in the future moreso, bear in mind what I just said. They have too much and we cannot live with what we have and until that changes the rants will continue
Tamlin
Jack's Exciting Adventure MP3
The Lyric to Jack's Exciting Adventure
I would not give any individual the honor of saying this song is about them. Sure, there's candidates, hate objects to some, love objects to others. It depends on who gets paid and who gets screwed. But I am above all that. I only think kind thoughts and I only want to help people realize their true potential.
Because, you see, I understand, I understand how hard it is, in this world with all it's terrible problems, to do the right thing always and sometimes, without meaning to. because of things we don't know and things we can't control; bad things happen and people with good intentions may, inadvertantly slip up and without meaning to, no without meaning to at all, allow things to happen that maybe they wish they had not.
But there is no blame. No, no blame cast I upon those who have hurt me. Nor do I cast blame upon those who hurt me today, at this very moment, or those who will, if they get their way, hurt me in the future. Those who steal from me I forgive. Those who hurt my loved one's I understand. Those who destroy all freedom and chance to live have a right to their way of thinking.
And I know you feel the same way. So let us all put our hearts together. And blessed be the rich. for the gate to heaven to them is narrow and the way is rocky and the path to hell a wide highway. smoothed, shining, brilliant and tax deductable.
--ALF, the lucky devil
02/06/05--(3.35 p.m.GMT)
Another Week_Another League Further
in the voyage of
The Tamlinmediaco
Lawyer and law professor Lawrence Lesser has lifted up the banner that was once held aloft by Justices Brandeis and Holmes. It is not an easy flag to fight under because many do not understand the cause. This is because they are told by people they believe they should respect that the cause is a false one. For such as myself it means the difference between practicing my trade and starving in the gutter so I don't have to be told twice.
For others the results are more indirect but as debilitating. Without income tax, without labor laws and such laws as protect the weakest among us the 20 th Century would not have been the American Century, and those laws, which kept ten year olds out of factories, and kept others from burning to death in unregulated workplaces, were fought tooth and nail by those that claimed such laws were imposing on their freedom to do what they wanted.
Thus freedom battles not with unfreedom but with itself, at it's core the battle we wage is between the freedom to make money and the freedom to stay alive.
So, I posted (for a few hours,) Mr. Lessing's "Free Culture" here, but then, I read the small print and while it is GNU copyright it also explicitly says not to put it oniine. So I removed it, but it is still worth reading. Suffice to say computer literacy makes me privy to at least several hundred times the ordinary information level and there are caches out there that make some several thousand times
what I know. Sometimes it's difficult to keep it all straight. A small irony is that copyright control, which, as a creator, I must support, works only where enforced and hence advantages other areas, eg Russia, China, India and the Virtual State.
Next, an explanation, we are a day late because we have a fifteen minute/44 meg, MP-4 video to post and after several hours of hassling with the I-Disk I gave up. The problem is not, as I thought originally with the Goliath application, it's is in the webdav protocol which accesses the disks. For the geeks here's the explanation. FTP requires 67 data packets to lock in a destination -WebDav requires nearly 13,000. Basically WebDav is for web page design and it is not for heavy lifting. Apple makes consumer goods, computers for people that don't use computers extensively and that's just a matter of priorities.
They seem to be realligning themselves in many ways that are not attractive. Give me a break. I don't need no shuck and jive. The good news however is we'll be posting more and much higher quality films on the Prelinger Archive as soon as possible. Days, not weeks. Apple often reminds me of a resort in third world. There's so many people that want to "help" you, actually they are looking for a tip, and you wish they'd go away.
WebDav sucks. To upload the file should take 20 minutes, with WebDav it takes hours, and I cannot lower the quality anymore then it is. I should not have to work around Apple's limitations. They are a multibillion company and they gotta scratch for pennies? Harrumph.
Listen, after ten years of hard work we are dying on the vine, Money won't save the small businessman. Even if out of the goodness of your heart you sent me a grand, it would be gone soon. What we need is legislation that smashes the monopolies and trusts and cartels. Give us the freedom to earn a living and all others will follow, without that no others matter.
Tamlin (&Here's ALF)
Saucers in the Storm MP3
The Lyric to Saucers in the Storm
This one I wanna make really clear. The storm/rain is experience. The saucers are our projected possibilities. Not quite gods, but each of us yearns for and hopes for the existance of some benevolent force that watches over us and in critical moments interceeds on our behalf.
We begin in turmoll The gaining of knowledge is slow in gestation and quick in birth. The awakening comes upon the experience of some final pain, often nothing "expecially" painfull, but enough to tip the balance to where the ego, "the giant electronic brain" can no longer enslave the psyche. The first reaction of others may be antipathetic, but there's very little they can do.
There's then a period of soul radiance where the external answers mean little.
This piece is informed by the work of the late bioanthropologist Terrence McKenna, but, rather then taking it's cue from his well known investigation of use of psychoactive drugs throughout human history it focuses on one of his later ideas, that being that human kinds fascination with "people from outer space" is an aspect of the religious impetus which seeks to find order in a seemingly chaotic universe.
The self organizing principle, whether a thought flashing through the brain, or a raft on the ocean, or perhaps a saucer in the storm, remains a constant and may it always do so in whatever form it appears
Bawn n' raised in a briar patch, Mistuh Fox
Bawn n' raised up in a briar patch
Uncle Remus
--alf
01/28/05--(7.35 p.m.GMT)
Welcome One Welcome All
Welcome Big Welcome Small
to the next generation
to a Quantummulus Leaper
the event of the Century
-Tamlinmediaco XK-2000-
The Future is Now
I am a little embarrassed because I read recently that Noam Chomsky answers all his E-mail, sometimes spending seven hours a day doing so, and he still manages to write books and think of -sociopolitical_ things to a degree and depth that I can't match. True, he probably has a personal assistant of two, or three, to help him, but nevertheless he is accessable and I am not.
So if anyone has some reason why they'd want to communicate with me the snail mail address here in beautiful Oxford was posted on the sitelog a little over a year ago. Gurus on mountain tops make acolytes wait, often several years, while the seeker carries water and chops wood, to teach them the first virtue, which is humility.
Just to put things in perspective, if there were to be a curriculum, or learning curve for what I do It would be well over twenty years, longer then a judge, longer then an MD/Surgeon. Shakespear was quicker off the mark, but didn't write music, and other then Wagner most composers don't write librettos, good ones at least.. And I am "normal" enough to want to be in the company of people like myself, as anyone would, so that;s why I am generally very poor company. What I do share with Shakespeare is a reputation for not being much of a party animal. It's ironic may that the great pyschological dramatist was not particuarly socialable. Maybe he just had a vivid imagination. :-)
Plus age has taught me to avoid being humiliated by women and used car salesmen. That way of life, which I associate with suburban Long Island, will never happen again, to me at least. As they'd say in the middle ages,"One who would mistake courtesy for weakness is forever shamed." I beg you to bear this in mind.
Tamlin
Dearly Beloved MP3
The Lyric to Dearly Beloved
One thing I love is love. That is why it is so great being alive, because love is all around us nowadayz. Ain't no hate no mo'- only love. The rich man loves the poor man, he don't wanna screw him over like the bad ole' dayz. And East loves west and west loves east on account of they agrees that liberal democracy combined with da merits of the free mocket sysdum is de abosalute bestest there is. And the black man loves the white man. Of course the white man always loved the black man, there was a just a little misubunderstanding at times.
If Bob Marley were here I know he'd shout hallelujah along with me.
Any misunderstandings what have been we'ze just forgive and forget. Everything's all better now. And I wanna get a piece of the action. You know what I'm saying? I want some of that love action. Ain't nobody mad no more and neither am I. In fact I am happy. Yes, I am, I am happy, happy, happy to be livin' in a world what got no problems except them what will be solved any minute now.
And I know you wanna be happpy too. That's why I made this song, an hunkle effort in the l hope that you will like it and love me and then give me all your, er, affection. It's about the day they buried Achilles. Po' boy. Didn't live to connect the pension. Well actually it's not about Achilles but about someone who was almost like Achilees, pretty much. As the great warrior flew to the flame of glory so did our hero fly to the flame likewise. He was a moth. His name was Fred Damoth. As between the Phoenix and the turtle dove his love was not to be, but shucks, it was a good show anyway.
-Your spirtual guide and comforter,, the Alien Life form
There are two short videos today.
The first is an experiment in Esp. Tamlin brought a video mixing program to ALF, one where the keyboard of the computer triggers video effects. ALF had no knowledge of what key did what but he was familiar with the choral piece that provides the soundtrack. The title of the piece cannot be translated exactly but roughly is "The sadness of infinite space." The music is by Georgy SVIRIDOV the lyric is by Feodor Sologub and it is sung by the Chorus of Vladislav Novik.
I love the sadness of your immensities,
my beloved country, my holy Russia,
And I feel neither fear nor shame,
at the doleful verdicts of destiny.
All your ways are dear to me,
and even if a senseless path,
Threatens me with darkness and sepulchral cold,
I shall not forsake it
To Download -- The Sadness of Endless Space (Mov)(save to disk)
The second film is dedicated to the victims and survivors of the industrial revolution. The soundtrack is by the ALF and the film itself is by Tamlin. It is named after a street in Queens, New York where there was a Western Electric Industrial Plant. It is called "Springfield Blvd."
To Download -- Springfield Blvd(MP-4)(save to disk)
ALF choose the following words by Blake to describe it.
The eternal gates terrific porter lifted the northern bar:
Thel enter'd in & saw the secrets of the land unknown;
She saw the couches of the dead, & where the fibrous roots
Of every heart on earth infixes deep its restless twists:
A land of sorrows & of tears where never smile was seen.
THE BOOK of THEL
Willm. Blake. 1780
--Norma Deren
01/22/05--(12.35 a.m.GMT)
Today we'd like to especially welcome you to
the Tamlinmediaco because
todays show is more then a show it's an
Celebration
and what is it a celebration of?
Freedom
that's right. the freedom to celebrate
So, let me begin by first off by congratulating those who have logged on to this website both today and over the years.. It is not inconceivable that when the story of our era is writ your names shall be written in golden flaming letters on an emerald backdrop.
You have done something you can be proud of for the rest of your life. You have had an independent thought. I know how difficult that is in this era of group think and conformity of despair.I know you can't talk about the Tamlinmediaco around the water cooler, the way you can about the latest ccelebrity marriage/breakup/baby, your manliness will not be emphasized in the way a few Knowing comments about the superbowl would provide.
Indeed I know many of you will tell no one of your experiences here, for fear of the ridicule directed towards those who are not close to the centers of this power or that..
But none of these things matter. The important thing is you showed up and in doing so you proved you're still your own person. and after all is said and done, what could be more important then that?
--Tamlin
Wonderfull World MP3
The Lyric to Wonderfull World
your average everyday common garden variety bird sings mostly one of three songs They are; 1) I have found food, 2) Get out of my face, you are crowding me and 3) (Which is by far the most popular) I am the best bird that ever lived.
the dove sings these songs too, albiet in a restrained manner, but in addition it sings other songs, which account for the great hold it has on our imagination. Among them is "The wind is very nice today". Even more touching is "The year is ending and we must be off"
A true life never before songwriter secret revealed here for the first time is there is no such thing as a love song. There's I want love and I lost love and even "I'm feeling pretty good about myself because I found love" but the love song qua love song, sub specie eternitas, is a physical impossibility. There are, of course theoretical solutions to the problem but none have ever succeeded. As the Italians say "Che cosa el amore?" Or,"What is the origin of this love?" It is an unanswerable question.
Beauty, truth and lesser things like wealth and health cannot stand before love. I need not tell you this. Do we fall for beauty? For intelligence? For security? For anything we think we would fall for? Nope. I have never met one sentient being that could explain it. The only wisdom in the matter is knowing it cannot be known, humility and gratitude, but love laughs at even those things.
The closest thing on Earth to a love song is the song of the dove and it can be translated roughly as "I am here - Are you there?" When there's nothing else happening doves will sing this song constantly
the alien(here's norma)
Here's todays film. (Save it to disk)
A few notes: These films are not "Rock" promotional videos. Having revolutionized the world of popular music we are now setting out to the the same thing in the long moribund field of fine art painting.
Thus the films are meant to be seen in museums, as "movng paintings." At sometime in the future we'll be setting them to the songs of ALF, but at this point we're just getting our feet wet, Among other things as well we're still building the database of source material. We use many applications here but would like to extend specific gratitude to Eric Wegner for his Metasynth suite, which allows resynthesis and audio to video mapping.
Then after that the songs will be presented as combination paintings/plays, with actors and actual stage settings. Selling the ALF will not be the central focus of these presentations which are meant to be part of the lineage of dramatic theatre. ALF will appear in selected roles' being particularly partial to the blindman, the clown, the king and death.
-norma deren
01/16/05--(11.35 p.m.GMT)
Unauthorized Access Permitted
Congratulations friends, todays show is destined to be a collectors item. It
is something you will want to download and share with your friends and family for years to come. We're all very pleased with ourselves here at the Tamilnmediaco and feel certain you will be too, For this show was made with love, with love energy and soul power. I don't have to tell you how important this day is and you know the reason why. We remain amazingly thankfull for all the recognition we've gotten from all over the world and especially here in jolly happy England and from those fabulous United States.
It's such an incredible thrill to have even a small tiny little space in your heart and the way everyone has opened their hearts and arms and embraced us leaves me flumoxed, speechless, dumbfounded and weirdness, so, if I seem at a loss for words take it from me that it's you all who made this possible, your support, your love and your willingness to sacrifice so much to help us has made this possible and I'll never be able to thank you enough.
in the "lest we forget" department,Monsieur Le Penn of the french far right has reminded the world that German occupation of France wieghed lighter on her then of any other country. I've mentioned that you rarely can walk a block or two in London without coming across a plaque denoting the spot of a particularly deadly bomb attack. In Amsterdam an entire section of the city, the Jewish quarter, which had been a place of santuary for over 500 years, is missing. Warsaw?, Dresden?, Koln? I like Paris, but there's something very spooky about it. Nothing has changed in a hundred and fifty years. None of the buildings were destroyed. There are no plaques. Not a scratch. Scratch wasn't there, or was he?
So perhaps what we have is not a testinomial to the mercy of the Nazis but to the abject and pitiful ability of the French to grovel like dogs. But then again the way the Americans cower and collapse before their own home grown far right fanatics doesn't give me much of a right to talk.
Yeah, it's a damn shame. Now that I need publicity desperatly I just can't get none. Probably in twenty years when everyone knows who I am I'll be doing everything possible to avoid being recognized. I tried falling into a swimming pool, but no dice. A starlet said to me "Silly, it only works when you're wearing a clinging dress." And wouldn't you know it? I haven't got a thing to wear.
But older people have that problem too, especially the ones we want to replace. Their life experience consists of having gone to college. But they do remember one thing from those golden days, from the debate club. If I say I like the sunshine, they say the rain is glorious. There's a name for that. They call it controversy and many a hard headed, hard hitting controversialist has milked that and four years of college into fourty years of carreer in the big leagues.
Of course in the big leagues it's all "on the job training" so being stupid is considered an asset because you can start fresh learning the company way. Then they put you in the room where the rats nibble on your eyebrows and nose. Pretty soon you're having dinner with the big shots and it's all gravy from there.
I learned this out all too late. I went for a job interview and the guy says,"What do you think of rats?" Right away I figured it was a trick question. It was for a big company so "I said,"Oh, uh, gee, uh, I like rats." The man threw me out of the office. He shouted "We'll have no rats on this ship. Why don't you try being a janitor?"
I didn't know at the time about their training methods. What a fool I was, but I'm telling you so you'll know. Just remember if they ask you, rats are bad, and you'll do anything to avoid having your face consumed by rats. Anything.
I hope this information will be of some help to you in your quest to achieve and step up in the world.
Tamlin
and here's the alien
Mr Toady MP3
The Lyric toMr Toady
What I love about humans is nobody gives a damn. Everything's hunky dory. There's only one sin on earth and that's weakness. Blessed are the weak for they shall give us our daily bread & twice on Sundays. Rules? Rules are for fools. Lawz? I'll trade you one felony for a half dozen missdemeanors. Oh doze missdeameanors they gettin' meaner and meaner. Zero tolerance I say, wash the gobbage away, clean up our towns, clean mah street, get that little girl over here, let her wash my feet.
Annoit my body with scented oil. Let a thousand persimmons bloom, make room, make room, boom, boom, boom, out go the light, your lover man gonna be your baby tonight, come down off the wall. flower, feel my powuh, Blessed are the humble for with minimum effort we make them crumble scrumble me dotty, my goats beyond
Garment me in satin velvet, trim my wrist in bands of gold, die for me my overcoat and I'll throw you pennies when you grow old.
The ALF (Here's Norma)
The task of the artist is to do one thing only and that is to hold a mirror up to the era they live in. At any given time most fail at this because they are confused by their idealizations and preconceptions of reality. They are like children who dress in costumes of firemen and policemen and while they often fool the equally childlike public they are, to the enlightened mind, intensely redundant. Perhaps they find some "shocking" aspect to leverage their efforts, be it political, sexual, or verbal but the lifespan of shocking is very short.
In fairness to the non artists, they are unsure of themselves, afraid of being laughed at. Virtuosity is the last refuge of the amateur.
In the last century there were those who persevered and did their jobs as composers. Varese, Penderenki, Stockhausen, Schoenburg and others gave us visions of their worlds. A second rule of art is if it can be "said" another way then it is not art. We can go further and suggest that if it can be comprehended and explained it is not art.
Other then that, as Picasso showed, because of humanities essential composition, as civilization proceeds so too does our attraction to and embracing of savagery. They cannot be separated because the intermediary, the pysche, demands balance.
It is in the interest of these things I made a six minute film. (Save to disk) The music is by ALF, but it is not the ALF most of you are familiar with.
--Norma Deren
01/10/05--(6.35 p.m.GMT)
One of my boyhood heroes was Thomas Edison. The bios kids read are usually about the childhood and young manhood of the character and tell you little of their actual adult work habits and techniques. Edison was much like a toymaker or artist with a workshop of apprentises, something I would not mind, but first I have to have a hit. Both Edison and Alexander Graham Bell were more then just invention machines as adults. That is to say that while being firstly practical, as every inventor must be, they also developed working theories to explain to themselves at least, how they got where they got. Bell was. like Helmholtz, interested first in sound, and made his discoveries to further that interest.
Anyway Edison also developed the ability to exist on catnaps of no more then an hour or two, for days on end, something I've only recenty learned how to do. Actually if you doit every 8 hrs, you get six hrs a day, which is not that different from ordinary sleep needs, but it does feel different physiologically.
So welcome to the world's longest ongoing experiment on the effects of sleep deprivation on the higher cognitive functions.
The pressure continues to build. I wish someone out there would get their act together. If they don't we will metamorphize yet again. Suicide, direct or indirect, holds little appeal to me and realistically I am not going to seek to punish those who have, er, "passed us by" but intuition suggests many things.
"And so it's true, pride comes before a fall
I'm telling so that you won't lose all"
-John Lennon
Tamlin and here's the alien
Elanya MP3
The Lyric to Elanya
Heartbreak number seventeen was.a beautiful girl, but what is more she had that inner purity that inspires us all who done had the priviledge to have known her. For to have known her is to have loved her. She was a gracefull moment amid the maelstrom of man's madness. She knew never what she wanted for she wanted only to give. No act o' kindness was there that could compare with her generosity. Selfless, dedicated, constant jewel of radiance in the darkness of a world that could only be beneath her saintliness
She repaid the abuse of this life with kindness. Each assault upon her loveliness found itself transformed into flowers of joy and happiness. Everytime her husband beat her you could always tell because the next day she would reward him with his favorite foods. When her man would get drunk after losing the rent money in poker games and slash the furniture up with the kitchen knives she would resist ever more the temptation to scold him, knowing that his need was so great and that only she could redeem him. Plus the sex was better after he punched her around a little.
Now the Lord has taken her nigh unto his bosum and our world is a darker place. Her former husband got remarried six weeks later to a cheerleader and is presently the proud parent of twins as well as a parakeet and a nifty sports car he got with the insurance money..
But who shall never forget her? Her innocence, her devotion, her self knowledge. and when late at night I gaze upon the half moon and think on the pale beauties of our world I see her there in the sky, walking through the stars, her long diaphanous gown trailing behind her and as the tears fill my eyes I whisper in a low voice that only the Lord can hear, "Elanya"
=ALF
