Late Night Music Club with Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking
By Andy K Tuesday Oct 27, 2009 7:00pmAll props to John Boswell of Colorpulse for finding a way to put the (otherwise) annoying Auto-Tune to great use.
After I first heard this, I pulled my copy of Cosmos off of the bookshelf for the first time in five years. Guess I'm going to have to break down and finally pick up a copy of A Brief History of Time, too. Who'd have ever thought that these two--Sagan and Hawking--giants in the field of astrophysics, would become pop stars in the field of music?
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This is great. Can't believe I haven't seen this yet. Carl is a hero of mine. I've had this CD on repeat since getting the leak last night. I can't wait to see him live. This melody sounds so familiar but I can't put my finger on it. Someone wanna help me out?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrnjwGEDi1w
This song reminds me of starry nights, Carl, and thinking about our inevitable self destruction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSEVNV0oQBw&fe...
Calming and beautiful. Thanks, Andy!
I had some friends who collaborated with him in Cornell. An amazingly brilliant mind, and great human being by all accounts.
His pot smoking antics where the stuff of legend too...
with Stephen J Gould? There's a fatty I'd wanna be in on...
People would be surprised about the scientific contributions of people under the influence of certain drugs ;-)
would have been a fun guy to hang out with. There are tons of stories floating around about his antics.
rumor has it that he was more into the ladies than mind altering substances.
I watched an interview where he said he didn't do drugs because he was afraid that they would damage his brain, but he did drink and and, you're right, he was all about the ladies. But with all of his practical jokes and bongo playing, it sounds like he was still a pretty fun guy.
had a lot of stories about the guy. I think they still have the Feynman memorial price for the 1st year student which comes up with the most creative way to murder their roommate using the physics learned that year.
then became a champion for medical marijuana...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Goul...
I never understood why people cared so much about a plant that seems to help people for the most part.
Harry Anslinger has a lot to do with it. Lied and swore to it in the 30s, and the assholes are still nosing up his arse, as it the sun shone out of it.
William R Hearst and timber barons had a lot to do with it too.
I hope that one day Hearst and Murdoch get to share bunk beds at their holding cell in hell.
Anslinger only did it for the job or the money from the job.
That is one of the big problems we have in government and I guess always have had people that were willing to do or say anything for the money. When I was a young man in the early 1970s I worked for a company called Walker Mfg. They made the first catalitic converters for Ford cars. We needed to get a lot of them made quickly so management decided to speed up the welding machines. The problem is if you go to fast it doesn't weld correctly. We had a lot of converters boxed up sitting stacked down the center wall that had things wrong with them, they didn't meet fords specifications. The plant manager came out to me on the line one night and told me that those parts need to be shipped to fords canada plant, that I should go over there and sign them out for shipment.
I said I could not do that because they didn't meet spec's. He went to the inspector on the next line and told him the same thing. This guy went over and signed all the boxes out.
About two weeks later, the assistant plant manager came out and fired the guy that signed out the boxes. I said wait a minute the plant manager told him to sign those out.
He said we have to show ford we are not going to let faulty parts be shipped to them. I said you should fire the plant manager. To say the least my arguement did no good. I could not stand it and even though I needed the money and it ended up breaking up my wife and me, I quit. I guess I let doing the right thing get in the way of making a living. But I just could not stand it. I guess that is why I will never be a republican again! I just cannot stand to do the wrong thing to make a buck.
Remember republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness! Brought on by greed and a total lack of morality.
very meaty lyrics, a lot to think on...
That was cool man.
but we're not getting off the planet.
Sorry. Deal with it.
tweakerbelle, my thought exactly…
We are such party poopers, you and I…
Carl was optimistic and bubbly, but the age of fossil fuel will end. We'll be back to the farm, at least what's left of it for the few that might survive.
Unless of course we blow ourselves up completely which still might happen.
Whether human anthropocentrism or nuclear winter, he pointed out the traps we've set for ourselves so that we might survive to make contact with other intelligent life forms in the universe.
In that way, you're a lot like Sagan, Alice. The scale might be different...but that's about it.
I am flattered to be in any sentence with Carl Sagan.
I have no doubt that the universe is teaming with life. Or that given the scale of things that there are advanced civilizations. Maybe even many already come and gone.
But E=MC2 and getting from one place to another of interest and viability is such an inconceivable hurdle that I no longer am optimistic that we will ever achieve it.
We are such poor stewards of our world that were we to find an energy source that might do it, fusion for example, that we then would go on to finish, in renewed efficiency, the harm we have started already.
That is the pessimist overtaking me.
Perhaps the extraterrestrials will reach us. That could be benign or it could be catastrophic.
Thirty years ago Sagan filled us with his hope but today I fear that we will simply fall back into the mud.
If they get here in time, maybe they will come pull us out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hL6fkJ1_k&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoVPEHHwCSM&an...
Kinda lame 1....:(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQs_dv4o3Is&fe...
Ah so much better. Anyone picking up a theme here?
I have been watching Cosmos on YouTube this evening for about the last hour or so and I opened up another browser and saw this. Neat-o.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD2TVLb7X78&NR...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2r8HTOYwY0&NR=1
This is so cool.
I found it quite moving.
Carl Sagan is greatly missed.
There's another video similar to this with Sagan, Bill Nye, and others:
http://www.youtube.com/user/melodysheep#p/a
Thanks again for turning me on to another inspirational song/artist/(insert noun here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp3y1mpxOY4
I really miss Carl Sagan - used to love his TV specials. Nova on PBS still does something similar, but Carl had an 'aura' about him that made everything he shared about the universe seem really special and very personal.
Because he piqued my interest, I've read a number of books about astronomy and physics over the years, and remain fascinated by the notion of the 'universe'. The Hubble photos have also been thrilling.
Considering the mysteries of the "Elegant Universe", as Brian Greene called it, while trying to understand most of the stuff we discuss on C&L helps to keep things in perspective for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlpyGhABXRA
One of my favorite mash-ups. Ever wonder why Agent Smith sounds so much like Carl? Because the Wachowski Bros. TOLD Hugo Weaving to imitate him.
He was a great man. I cried for hours the day I heard he'd died. Always wished I could have met him, at the least to thank him for the influence he had on my young mind.
This isn't true. Neither the Wachowskis nor Hugo Weaving have ever cited Carl Sagan as an influence on the voice of the Agent Smith character. Some people think they hear similarities, and a lot of silly YouTube videos have been made as a result, but this persistent rumor/joke is not based in any fact. And frankly, I'm sick of seeing it repeated by a lot of gullible people who are uninterested in checking their facts.
here's something that's just not long enough
Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA Orchestra "Ringo Rock" Live at the Barbican London
Bruce Springsteen appeared simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek.
On this date in 1988, U2's Rattle and Hum debuted in Dublin.
And on this date, all we got was this crummy Auto-Tune thing instead.
...Pete Seeger had a reaction similar to yours- "...all we got was this crummy Auto-Tune thing."- to this. Seeger was a bit more angry than you, to someone's...uhm...credit?
C'est la vie. Life goes on. Things change. Dylan goes electric.
That is masterfully done. Two thoughts:
1) ABHOT is a very good book, but for some reason I always link it in my mind with Goedel, Escher, Bach (D. Hofstadter) -- I recommend that book even more highly, though it's a much bigger time investment. If you want to read theoretical physics I found Feynman a lot more engaging and also more educational than Hawking, though they're less about space than about particles. Six Easy Pieces, Six Not So Easy Pieces, and QED are all great, even the parts that are beyond me. That's what I'll be revisiting.
2) I wish the auto-tune hadn't obliterated Carl's trademark silly voice. I bet there's a way to write a good Sagan-filter so that it would make anyone's voice act like his, and even spice up this production without undoing the musicality.
If it is Auto-tune being used on this song it's being used with a controller for more of a vocoder effect...which may in fact be what it is. It would be EXTREMELY tedious to auto-tune something like this manually.
You know auto...
I found this to be incredibly moving... Artificial or not, it gave me goosebumps.
Major props.
In this era of amazing computer technology, there are mainly two schools of pop performers, those who though they have limited or even minimal talent and skill proceed to perform with whatever spirit they have to get them across to their audience.
For them the spirit suffices.
And then there are those that use technology to correct for their lack of talent and skill. The technology is amazing. Vocal tracks where not two notes back to back are in tune can be made to sound perfect.
Poor timing can be corrected, inflection can be modified.
Instrumental tracks can be constructed without any real time performance ability at all, vocal tracks even. A whole tool box of deception.
A strange world where endorsement need go to those that unabashed demonstrate they have minimal talent and, or have developed no significant skill.
And of course, more benignly at this juncture, on the rare occasion to good effect, a vocal performance can created out of conversation.
---
Anne Sophie Mutter is, IMHO, the greatest violinist alive. I can take tracks of her playing and play them at half speed, down an octave. Her pitch is still perfect. Her phrasing is still perfect. No one else can I say this about.
And if on the rarest of occasion, they are not, the spirit never fails.
She is undoubtedly a member of another civilization, another world or another time come to visit us.
Mr. Sagan was great at focusing on the broader picture, and explaining how scientific concepts are connected to it. And he totally discredited the notion that those who believe in science are amoral because they aren't "guided" by a religious or spiritual compass.
It's in that vein that he made what I might dare characterize as a spiritual statement (and the best I've heard myself) about human existence and its connection to evolution: "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself"
There was an MC Stephen Hawking spoof from years ago. Check out "F*** the Creationists."
As for the creationist get a life, remember this if it is Comprehendable by the human mind it is a matter of the rightr time and place. Space travel and a walk on the moon by the Loons on the right would have never happened if left to them. This is reality deal with it, enjoyed the vedio.
Thank you for posting this. I've listened to it half a dozen times today. (Three times at lunch alone!) Sagan had a wonderful ability to mix prose and poetry into science. For me, this is an almost religious experience.
“A still more glorious dawn awaits,
Not a sun rise, but a galaxy rise.
A morning filled with four hundred billion suns,
The rising of the Milky Way.”
I had the exact same reaction when I first ran across this- I watched/listened to it about 10 times in about 2 hours.
I like the other one at this guys site better, but this one is still great.
It makes me sad that carl sagan died but makes me happy with his positive vision of the future.
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