#adding tape loops on 7 april

[torchlitinthedesert]

Paul’s greatest hobby at the moment is tape recording. He has a room which is stacked with recording equipment. It’s loaded with special devices and Paul spends hours twiddling complicated sets of controls, a great big pair of headphones strapped about his ears. He’s become an expert at recording and double-tracking - he’ll start with a basic sound on one tape, re-record something over it and then repeat the process umpteen times using two tape decks. He specialises in curious space noises and electronic music. Once he set up a line of tumblers, each with a different amount of water in, and recorded the sound made by running his fingers around the rim of each one.

Neil Aspinall, Beatles Book Monthly, April 1966.

[whennnow]

Utilitarian Edwardian Combinations

April 13, 2023

[Image ID: a photo of Alex posing seated on the edge of a bed, wearing white stockings and Edwardian combinations.]

Sometime last summer, having finished my 1890s corset, but not started planning the corresponding wardrobe, I bought a pattern for Edwardian combinations, dug some slightly-discolored white cotton from my stash, and cut out the pieces.

(Now, I want to say that, yes, I understand that these combinations are a few years too late for the 1890s. I prefer the Edwardian shape of combinations over the chronologically-correct 1890s shape. They're underwear, so when I'm dressed no one will be able to tell that they're not accurate. And frankly, everyone's doing it.)

Part of the reason I had put them aside for so long was the fact that I cut out the front bodice pieces as-is, when I had originally wanted to add pintucks. When I got the fabric and pattern back out in mid-March I decided I didn't care enough to do that, so I just started sewing.

Well, actually, I started ironing. There were seven (7) facing pieces that needed to have certain edges ironed down before starting to sew. Then I could actually start sewing - attaching the facings to the front and back bodice pieces, sewing the legs, attaching the leg facings, and making the leg ruffles into a closed loop. More pressing, then more sewing, then more pressing. I skipped the bodice ruffles, though, because they would have been uselessly bulky under a corset.

And then I had an idea.

I didn't intend to add much (if any) lace or decoration to these, but all that white was getting boring. So I decided to spice things up with colored top-stitching. I still have thread left over from my corset, so I top-stitched the bodice facings and the ruffle's hem in light blue! The effect is subtle, but super cute.

I did add a tiny bit of lace, though. I had two lengths of quarter-inch wide lace that I salvaged from... something I can't remember. They were the perfect lengths to add to the bodice just under the facings!

Then it was ruffling time. I didn't want to hand sew the gathering stitches for the leg ruffles, but I was worried that the thread would break if I used machine stitches to gather them. I ended up using the "zigzag stitch over a piece of string" method. I also ended up resorting to an old Pinterest trick where you do two lines of gathering stitches - one above and one below the stitching line - in order to help control the gathers and make them neater.

I'm so glad I did! It was a tedious process but the results couldn't be prettier!

To cover the raw edge of the ruffle, I made bias tape of the same white cotton I used for the rest of the project and used blue topstitching along the top and bottom to hold it in place around the leg.

With the bodice and legs completed, it was time to attach them to the waistband and make it one single garment!

The bodice went first, with a bit of gathering at the center front. I put in two lines of gathering stitches by hand. The result was not as neat as the two lines of zigzagging over string, but oh well. That gets sandwiched between the inner and outer waistbands, sewn, and ironed.

Then the legs get some gathering at the center back. Having learned my lesson on the bodice, I did the gathering with string again. The legs get sewn to the outer waistband first, then ironed. The legs are just barely supposed to meet at the center back (because these are split drawers), but I opted to overlap the facings for a bit more modesty.

I added some more decorative top stitching along the edges of the waistband, which served to attach the bottom edge of the inner waistband as well.

Finally, it was just buttonholes (in blue thread) and buttons (also blue)! The pattern calls for six down the front - one on the neckline facing, one on the waistband, and four in-between. I ended up adding two on the leg facings below the waistband for some more coverage.

And, with that, my combinations were done!

These are easily one of the weirdest garments to put on. I can't explain it, but the way the legs are disconnected just makes it so odd to get into!

I'm mostly pleased with how these turned out, even if my top-stitching doesn't hold up well to close inspection.

There is one thing I want to point out, though. Becuase this pattern (the TV one) is technically for a corset cover and drawers, and the combinations are just a 'pattern hack', the bodice is a bit oddly shaped for wearing under a corset.

As an Edwardian corset cover, the bodice is meant to encourage the pigeon-breasted look of the era, so there's a lot of extra fabric at the bottom front of the bodice. Because I was making a garment to wear under a corset, I could have shortened the center front by an inch or even an inch and a half and the garment would have been a bit more suited to my purposes. It will work fine as is, but it could have been better.

Next up in 1890s sewing is a bust improver and bum pad. I'm hoping to order a bodice and skirt pattern later this month, too, so I can finalize my plans for clothing. I will need a petticoat eventually, but I'm not sure I have the budget to buy fabric for that right now.

My next few sewing projects will not be 1890s, though! I've got a secret project brewing in a new era that needs to be done before the end of the month and then a quick modern project that is already cut out and waiting for me. Then maybe back into the Regency for a bit, but who knows.

Until then,

Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

[art-of-manliness]

Podcast #581: The Tiny Habits That Change Everything

We’re a month into the new year now. How are you doing on your resolutions? Have you already fallen off the wagon? Maybe the goal you set for yourself was just too big to successfully tackle. You need to think smaller. Tiny, even. That’s the argument my guest makes. His name is Dr. BJ Fogg, and he’s the founder and director of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, as well as the author of the new book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything. Today on the show, BJ walks us through the three components that drive our behavior, including the simple yet overlooked relationship between motivation and ability. He then explains how to build habits that feel easier and require lower levels of motivation by picking behaviors that are good matches for you and breaking them down into smaller parts. We also talk about the need to tie your habits to turnkey prompts, the importance of celebrating your successes, no matter how small, and the way tiny habits can lead to bigger changes. We end our conversation with why you should think about the process of getting rid of your bad habits as untangling them rather than breaking them.   Show Highlights * What is the Fogg Behavior Model? * The relationship between motivation and ability in our behaviors  * Why relying on motivation isn’t the best bet for behavior change * The 3 characteristics of Golden Behaviors * How to make behavior change easier for yourself  * Making behavior prompts more effective * BJ’s pee/push-up prompt, and why it works * Creating tiny habit “recipes”  * Celebrating when you’re successful with your recipes  * Using these tips with kids  * Why we should “untangle” habits rather than “break” them  Resources/People/Articles Mentioned in Podcast * What Makes Your Phone So Addictive and How to Take Back Your Life * A Proven System for Building and Breaking Habits * How to Create Habits That Stick * How to Hack the Habit Loop (and my podcast with Charles Duhigg about habits) * The Motivation Myth * How to Stress Proof Your Body and Brain * Counterintuitive Advice on Making Exercise a Sustainable Habit * Stick With It — The Science of Behavior Change * 7 Tips on Making and Breaking Habits Connect With BJ BJ’s website TinyHabits.com BJ on Twitter Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!) Listen to the episode on a separate page. Download this episode. Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice. Listen ad-free on Stitcher Premium; get a free month when you use code “manliness” at checkout. Podcast Sponsors The Strenuous Life. A platform designed to take your intentions and turn them into reality. There are 50 merit badges to earn, weekly challenges, and daily check-ins that provide accountability in your becoming a man of action. The next enrollment is coming up in the April. Sign up at strenuouslife.co. Harry’s. New customers get $5 off a Trial Set at HARRYS.COM/manliness. You’ll get a 5-blade razor, weighted handle, foaming shave gel with aloe, and a travel cover. Policygenius. Compare life insurance quotes in minutes, and let us handle the red tape. If insurance has frustrated you in the past, visit policygenius.com. Click here to see a full list of our podcast sponsors. Read the Transcript Coming soon! The post Podcast #581: The Tiny Habits That Change Everything appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/RPJspQ

[vinciaka]

KALEIDOSCOPE: a project by DAYE

my dear friend serge aka daye just sent a full project for me to listen through before the release of it. It moved me so much that i couldn’t sleep without trying my very best to explain how listening to this made me feel, cause it made me feel very much, all 7 tracks. i want to (try to) explain to you how each song made me feel.

a little quick thing to know before you read this: i tend to reach a lot, and in this little post here, i will try to explain how i saw these songs and the conceptual interpretations i made. they’re probably wrong and might not have been the artist’s true intentions when making the songs,  but songs are more fun if you listen to them in your own way. oh !warning! my “review” or whatever might be very biased lol okay

where were we? oh right, the feels. I feel like it made perfect sense to name this project KALEIDOSCOPE, because just like the real thing, daye reflects both his personal life and producing essence in his music and it creates this beautiful art that transforms into another masterpiece depending on how you decide to look at(/listen to) it. he has used things like audio clips from moments in his life, sounds of a cassette player being opened/closed, voices of friends with his (oh so) suitable voice to enhance theirs, and his own voice as main focus (spoiler: my fav song is where he raps the outro... stay tuned xo). It all results in a beautiful memoir, that i felt was focusing on the things surrounding him, perceived by serge and translated by daye into these songs.

the first song ROLLIN sucked me in with the very calming cheerful melody. the song features rapper mike jones that tells a story about a cute blossoming affection between two people who both seem too shy to come forward about it. the story is accompanied with beautiful inputs of shorter melodies created with something that sounds like a very pianoy electric guitar (comes in around 1:46). this song really shows dayes talent when it comes to creating melodies and layering the same melody with different sounds. we hear everything from violin sounds, to synths, backed by fabulous kicks and claps and hi-hats and tambourines and... you get it. he pays a lot of attention to details and it shows through the very subtle sounds of “plings” and his own “so now we” voice input. the beat is concluded with a beautiful piano outro played by one of his friends and puts a more “ripened love”(lol) denouement to the cutesy lovey dovey mood introduced in the beginning of the song. it ends with an audio clip talking about rolling....the green (or brown) stuff. This song feels: buoyant, calm, blissful, bubbly, cute.

the second track BADBOY (also my second favorite song) is just pure, fantastic, simple yet detailed quality production. this song feels like taking an evening walk in the inner city when everything is about to close during warmer weather & meeting up with fun adventurous friends. the drum loop is just so beautifully chosen and is the highlight of the song to me. the second name of this song should be SYNTHBOY (sry). the thing is, i usually don’t like synthy sounds, but daye chooses his sounds so perfectly and breaks it off with complementary non-expected sounds, and the result is... my second favorite track. the outro is a fun audio clip where his friends are joking around. The song really gives me both summer night and summer day and summer day vibes. This song feels: sunny, refreshing, cresent-moony, breezy

next song SWAGOO is my personal favorite. wow.. just wow. i would divide the song into 3 parts and i mean… 3 parts? ugh daye’s mind! the first part is a sample of a song with vocals that go “your love, your love, your love” and it’s a great introduction to the theme of the song. Next part we’re introduced to a very soothing R&B electric piano feel that was quickly accompanied by a  very minimalistic, clean kick, snare and hi-hat. once again, rapper mike jones is featured and this time tells a story that seems to continue on where he left off in ROLLIN. but this time he’s ready to settle down. the whole minimalistic instrumental through the second part gave off the good feelings of liking someone and being really sure about the whole thing. but i realized that it all was a false feeling of comfort when the second part was cut off into an audio clip. the audio clip is from a video featured by yours truly (lol) & other friends and is from a house party both me and daye were at at some time in april 2019. in the audio clip you can hear us singing to self control by frank ocean, and the part daye chose to add just makes so much sense and is so fitting into the story. it was the part where frank says “i came to visit, cause you see me like a ufo”. after mike jones spoke about being ready to settle down into the relationship, it seems like it all fell off, just like what that part in frank’s song hints at. two people falling off. right after the audio clip, i was hit by what gave me kind of a revelation, kind of an unreligious epiphany… the third and final part of the song. the last part lasts for 30 seconds and that’s what i dislike the most about this project, because to me that last part is the highlight of this tape. daye uses his own voice (!!) in a gloomy way with a sullen beautiful instrumental that i was amazed by. that part of the song is what fits my personal music taste the most. its crazy. the goal of trying to write all of this down instead of reviewing it directly to serge was to give me a chance to fully express how i felt about this project, but still this part gives me a hard time to explain how wonderfully divine it was. his vocals concludes the love story that mike told. the love interest was just “bad news” and the whole thing left daye in a slump. this whole song is just a wonderful story about love that fades when the mutual feelings stop being mutual and daye portrayed it beautifully through merging 3 different parts and leveling it out to create one harmonious song. excellent. i wish i could replay those last 30 seconds over and over again. in the very end, you hear the sound of a cassette player opening, welcoming the next song. This song feels: jolly -> hopeful->surprising->gloomy, amazing, rainy

track 4 and 5 i will review together as one part. first we hear SMILLAS INTERLUDE and then we hear TIMELESS, both have beautiful melodies and lyrics sung by serges friend smilla. the interlude is just different cuts of her voice singing some words, but mostly overwhelmingly beautiful runs. wow what a voice. in between the cuts of her voice daye carries on the theme with cassette player opening/closing sounds. the interlude almost sounds like the process of writing a letter with drafts and parts that both are kept and thrown away but that in the end results in a fully written letter, and that’s what TIMELESS is. if deciding to look at this project as one big storyline where all songs are small pieces of a bigger story, the lyrics in TIMELESS seem like an explanation to why the love was “bad news”. the whole intention of the relation seemed to be confusing and not straight to the point, a “timeless haze” as told by smilla. the best point of this song, the music production by daye, made it feel like everything still was alright. the beat felt like a hug, saying that the confusion is okay. it felt like a rainy summer day. bright outside with gray skies and a rainbow. the song is fully nuanced because all of the elements in it. everything has more than one layer. the drums, the synths, the vocals. during the chorus, a simple bassline is added to the instrumental and it gives the song a whole new layer of depth. the mixing of this song is the best in my opinion. This song feels: reassuring, confidently confusing, self focusing, profound, like a kiss on the forehead.

the second last song of this tape, COMING HOME shares the spot together with BADBOY as my second favorite track. the production is just so spectacular and high quality! i love it. the drum loop hits hard throughout the whole song and once again, daye’s ears made my ears a big favor by choosing it. his talent with finding and picking out the best sounds & layering was really noticable in this song and it all feels like a whole majestic musical arrangement more than just a beat. it feels like the last day of summer. the melody created by the bass, synths and other sound effects makes the song feel like a sad farewell, but affirming of that better days will come. To further push the feeling of that this is a goodbye, we once again have the talented mike jones lifting the song even more with his added lyrics about “coming home”. between mike’s verses, i was blessed with a beautiful guitar solo played by daye’s talented friend edvin. i had a hard time choosing, but the point of this song is the drum loop and the bassline. listening to the project as a whole, it feels like this is the last song of the project even if isn’t. This song feels: elevating, reminiscent, bittersweet, concluding

like i said above, COMING HOME feels like the last song. but now, we have come to the official last song: INTRO2PHASE2. what im about to say, the title already hints on it. this song sticks out the most to me and it is made very obvious the first two seconds of the song with a very intense synth sound that differs from any synth throughout the whole project. the music composition differs a lot too and is no longer soft and summery but rather upbeat, more intense and less... lovey. it was impossible not to move your head along to the beat. What i like the most about this song is that it shows a whole different side of daye and portrays his versatility when it comes to production. whichever genre he decides to approach he does perfectly and leaves his fingerprints scattered all over the finished product, so it still sounds like daye.  this feels more like an intro to the next concept more than outro to this tape, and that is why the song before this was (to me) the last song of this project (or should i say phase?). mike (who is featured here too) also uses his voice in a more powerful way compared to the more relaxed/soft way that is heard in the other songs he is in. if it still isn’t obvious that this is an intro to the switch of concepts, it is made even more clear with mike’s unfinished sentence where he says he doesn’t want drama, he wants-... to be continued i guess! This song feels: intense, like fire, stinky face, hard

 im excited for what’s next to come, and curious about where the focus will shift in the next project. daye left us with a cliffhanger, and hopefully, in the future we will know what it was that mike jones wanted instead of drama.

to summarize, this project felt very conceptual even if intentional or not, the order of the songs made sense if you were to look at it as a whole story. generally, it sounds like the theme is love; from its exciting beginnings to the end of it (and maybe the rebound too?) in a very realistic way. all songs can be seen as one big coherent story, or as individual songs and which one you see depends on how you want to look at it through the KALEIDOSCOPE. This project feels like: love, summer, a story

[thetapelessworld]

Spitfire Audio reunites with BAFTA-winning Icelandic composer and producer to reimagine piano as ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS sample instrument

Spitfire Audio reunites with BAFTA-winning Icelandic composer and producer to reimagine piano as ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS sample instrument

Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS — seeing the sound-specialising British music technology company readily reuniting with BAFTA-winning Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds to closely collaborate on its latest fully NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®) supporting plug-in instrument for Native Instruments’ industry-standard KONTAKT PLAYER sample playback engine as an instantly playable, easy-to-use versatile, multidimensional tool that bends space and time through an intricate network of polyrhythmic piano performances, presented in a bespoke interface made up of eight multi-layered piano and synthesiser matrixes offering unique sonic experiences and detailed customisation options to create awe-inspiring patterns and atmospheric clouds of harmonic refractions that swell and die away, offering a spectrum of emotion — as of March 19... With a lengthening line of bestselling sample-based virtual instrument library namesakes, including 2015’s ÓLAFUR ARNALDS EVOLUTIONS — embracing unique string quartet textures and long evolving phrases; 2016’s intimate-sounding ÓLAFUR ARNALDS COMPOSER TOOLKIT — recorded on a characterful ‘felted’ grand piano; and 2018’s ÓLAFUR ARNALDS CHAMBER EVOLUTIONS — introducing the BAFTA-winning Icelandic composer and producer’s signature ‘Waves’ strings samples that evolve beneath the player’s fingers, ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS stands out as Spitfire Audio’s fourth such collaboration, this time bringing about a brand-new, multidimensional instrument, based on Ólafur Arnalds’ acclaimed software: sophisticated MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Instrument) algorithms programmed to trigger patterns of notes on two identical self-playing pianos. Put it this way: when acute nerve damage suffered following a car accident left him unable to play with his left hand, rather than giving up Ólafur Arnalds was musically motivated to develop intelligent custom software that could trigger self-playing, semi-generative ‘ghost’ pianos, and after spending two years experimenting with programmer Halldór Eldjárn to painstakingly perfect this technology, he incorporated it into his live show — playing an electronic keyboard on stage while his two identical pianos accompanied him to create a cascade of complementary notes and patterns, with each performance unique to each audience. As such, those Stratus pianos also played an integral part in the sound world of his acclaimed 2018 record, re:member. Remember, too, that Spitfire Audio ultimately used this model to create the highly-intuitive and interactive tool that became ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS, suitably enhanced with unique features, while recording full performances to capture the profoundly emotional, organic nature of the pianos themselves — instantly adding echoes of movement to anything played, pushing players to explore new possibilities. Collectively captivated by this fantastic fusion of organic, emotive physicality and electronic innovation ingenuity, Spitfire Audio spent several weeks at Ólafur Arnalds’ awe-inspiring studio space in Reykjavik, Iceland capturing his unique-sounding Yamaha DU1E3 felt-dampened pianos in their natural habitat. However, rather than simply sampling single notes, the visiting sound-specialising British music technology company made full recordings of multitudes of polyrhythmic patterns and textures performed by both pianos, triggered simultaneously by algorithms, and carefully curated in close collaboration with Ólafur Arnalds himself. Having opted to close record them using vintage Neumann KM 83 and Coles microphones, plus pristine Millenia preamps, Spitfire Audio’s carefully captured results retained the beautiful resonances, and full dynamic and tonal range of Ólafur Arnalds’ distinctive-sounding pianos, brought to life by trailblazing technology. The resulting ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS methodology makes it easy to create nuanced piano-based music from the most simplistic of arrangements. As such, simply holding down a note or chord can result in getting gloriously lost in inspiring unique clouds of harmonic refractions and rhythmic performances as they swell, evolve, and die away — and all at anyone’s fingertips. For those trying to create whatever musical mood they might have in mind, it offers a whole spectrum of emotion, derived from user input — from intimate loops, swells, and textures to intricate rhythms falling like rain, and dreamy, expansive soundscapes.

So how, exactly, does ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS do what it is that it does so well? Well, simply speaking, it works by taking a single note and repeating it according to a curated rhythm, splitting the rhythm between the two self-playing pianos while at the same time relocating the note up or down the octave based on a curated level of randomness that chooses whether or not the octave should jump. Whereas Spitfire Audio’s acclaimed Evo Grid technology — implemented so successfully in so many of its sample-based virtual instruments libraries — is triggered by note range, ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS introduces a bespoke interface featuring eight 8x8 instrument matrixes complete with up to five Z-Axis layers — namely, 01A MATRIX - RHYTHMIC WAVES (tempo-synced rhythms with a gradual attack/swell); 01B MATRIX - RHYTHMIC ATTACKS (tempo-synced rhythms with a strong attack); 02 MATRIX - LOOPED RHYTHMS (tempo-synced loops); 03 MATRIX - SWARMS (non tempo-synced swarm-like textures); 04 SYNTH MATRIX - LOOPED RHYTHMS; 05 SYNTH MATRIX - SWARMS; 06 SYNTH MATRIX - LOOPED RHYTHMS: SHORTS 1; and 07 SYNTH MATRIX - LOOPED RHYTHMS: SHORTS 2. Although all are specially curated by Ólafur Arnalds himself, the user controls how these combinations of harmonic elements develop — both by what they play, and with extensive built-in customisation options, as well as a comprehensive range of effects, including CONV. (convolution) REVERB, DELAY, FILTER, and TAPE SAT. (saturation). The first four (piano-based) matrixes capture the stunning organic sounds of Ólafur Arnalds’ pianos, panned across the stereo field — Stratus Piano - Centre, Stratus Piano - Left, and Stratus Piano - Right — to give a true representation of the pianos in their space, seamlessly blended into one, while the other four (synthesiser-based) matrixes employ the same technology to create similar patterns, with stunning tempo-locked rhythmic loops made using Olafur Arnalds’ classic Korg PS-3100 — a monstrous 48-note polyphonic, patchable analogue rarity — and dreamy swarm-like textures from his beloved Juno-60 programmable analogue polysynth. The Randomise bar features experimental controls to further randomise ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS’ behaviour, taking advantage of the library’s generative nature. Needless to say, Spitfire Audio being Spitfire Audio, that’s not all. Augmenting that bespoke Stratus user interface — designed for the selection and playback of samples on a per-voice basis — is the sound-specialising British music technology company’s tried and tested Mercury marvel, another ingenious interface including a range of organic sounds and specially curated warped sounds (WARPS). With that in mind, all controls therein are assignable to external control surfaces, so users can quickly make Spitfire Audio’s already created sounds their own. On the face of it, then, ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS’ versatility lends itself to solo compositions, as well as adding texture and unpredictable elements to orchestral libraries, and complementing the libraries in Spitfire Audio’s acclaimed ÓLAFUR ARNALDS... series. All are a must-have for musicians and composers looking to create beautiful, progressive, hybrid ensemble music influenced by the Scandi Noir movement. Making room on a hard drive for ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS is like rooming at Ólafur Arnalds’ awe-inspiring studio space and invading the keen experimenter and innovator’s headspace — albeit without travelling to Reykjavik, inspirational in itself as it undoubtedly is! 

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS can be purchased and digitally downloaded for a time-limited introductory promo price of £199.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$249.00 USD/€249.00 EUR (inc. VAT) until April 9, 2020 — rising thereafter to an RRP of £249.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$299.00 USD/€299.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from here:https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/olafur-arnalds-stratus/ (Note that owners of ÓLAFUR ARNALDS EVOLUTIONS, ÓLAFUR ARNALDS COMPOSER TOOLKIT, and/or ÓLAFUR ARNALDS CHAMBER EVOLUTIONS save an additional 5% off the ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS introductory promo price per product already owned; ÓLAFUR ARNALDS THE COLLECTION — a bundle featuring all four of Spitfire Audio’s acclaimed ÓLAFUR ARNALDS... series sample-based virtual instrument libraries — is also available at an attractive 35% saving until April 9, 2020 from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/olafur/) ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS needs Native Instruments’ KONTAKT PLAYER (5.6.8 or higher) — a free version of the KONTAKT sample playback engine (included in its purchase) — to run as a fully NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®) supporting plug-in instrument for Mac (OS X 10.10 or later) or Windows (7, 8, or 10 — latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit), while Spitfire Audio’s free Download Manager application allows anyone to buy now and download anytime. For more in-depth information, including some superb-sounding audio demos by Spitfire Audio co-founder and composer Christian Henson and others, please visit the dedicated ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS webpage here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/olafur-arnalds-stratus/ Watch Ólafur Arnalds himself reveal the story behind ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS here: https://youtu.be/uhxAvweQ_tU Watch Spitfire Audio co-founder and composer Paul Thomson’s ‘traditional’ walkthrough of ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS here: https://youtu.be/3NTGPJlQDU4 Watch Spitfire Audio co-founder and composer Christian Henson’s composing with ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS video here: https://youtu.be/MBBJ8kfeYGE Lose track of time while watching Spitfire Audio’s awe-inspiring trailer video for ÓLAFUR ARNALDS STRATUS sympathetically scored by ‘composer-in-residence’ Homay Schmitz here: https://youtu.be/1GFdcPleKMw 

[numinagroupco]

Accelerate Ecommerce Order Fulfillment Productivity by Automating the Last 100’ of the DC!

We’re often asked by clients to identify ways to accelerate throughput and eliminate the bottlenecks in a manual pack and ship order fulfillment operation. The initiative can include all three components of Ecommerce Order Fulfillment – pick, pack, and ship at the 3PL’s or client’s warehouse.

The pack and ship area, however, is the low-hanging fruit prime for process improvements and automation technologies. The last 100 feet – the pack and ship area – is many times the bottleneck, throttling output, due to multiple touches and excessive manual handling.

Pack automation conveyor lines can scale from a single line to 10 or more lines and support 15 to 100 parcels per minute at 3 to 4 times the productivity of a manual pack area. Replace outdated processes with lean, efficient automation technologies to gain a rapid ROI and boost order fulfillment throughput rates.

What’s driving growth and initiatives to automate? It’s the unrelenting shift to online sales, where order profiles are shipments of on average 1-3 each. This is also evident in last November’s online sales accounting for nearly 18% year-over-year growth, according to Adobe Analytics. This boost in ecommerce is creating a new paradigm and opportunity for 3PLs and distributors to add technologies that can both lower labor costs while increasing throughput in current or new operations.

If your current parcel pack and ship area operation is relying on manual labor, especially temporary labor during peak season you’re going to find it increasingly hard to meet the 2018 expected growth in ecommerce shipments. Labor is becoming a scarce commodity, expensive to recruit and keep. Warehouse wages are rising 12-15%. When pack and ship relies on manual labor, it is a major profit drain.

A 2,000 to 3,000 carton per day operation requires a minimum of 4-5 operators to manually pack and manifest orders, and restricts peak throughput to 250-300 orders per hour. Think of each operator’s repetitive low value work tasks:

Re-packing and scanning each item in the order shipment

Adding void fill

Hand scanning and keyboard data entry

Manually weighing each parcel

Printing and placing the packing sheet into the carton

Hand taping each package

Or worse: Folding and placing the pack sheet in a plastic pouch, then applying it to the outside of the carton

Printing and hand applying the carrier shipping label to the outside of the carton

This process is way too slow, expensive and error prone to support any mid to high volume ecommerce order fulfillment operation! Regardless of the DC’s volume, automation will lower labor costs. Automation replaces manual touches throughout the pack and ship operation and eliminates errors and the bottleneck of obsolete manual packing and manifesting operations. Integrating perfect processes and automation technologies turns pack and ship into a continuous order shipping machine.

Summary of benefits in-line pack automation provides B to C and B to B order fulfillment:

One to two operators perform the work of 6-8 people at a void fill carton seal station, processing 700 cartons per hour B to B or B to C shipments.

Reduces over 50 seconds of labor from every order.

Handle a wide variety of shipment sizes from poly bags, flats, cartons ranging in size from .25” H to 30” high.

Reduces errors, increase revenues, and streamlines packing, shipping, and manifesting; with a rapid ROI in under 15 months for a 2,000 to 3,000 parcel a day distribution operation.

Rapid ROI in under 15 months for a 2,000 to 3,000 parcel a day distribution operation.

Key elements of ecommerce order fulfillment include timely delivery and positive customer experience. A consumer’s major “touch experience” following order delivery is the right documentation. A pack line that centralizes the documentation, void fill, and sealing instead of relying on an army of individuals to do these tasks manually allows 1-2 operators to perform the equivalent work of 10 to 12 operators.

Expect reduction in manual labor combined with significant throughput increases to reduce cost per shipment by up to $1.00 when changing your process to printing and presenting the pack sheet at the taper sealer. You can fully automate by auto printing and inserting the pack sheet, promotional information, etc. on the conveyor line prior to the in-line void fill and taper/sealer to achieve even better results.

After sealing, the cartons convey to an automated scan-weigh-dimensioner system with a print and apply label applicator. This automates the shipping manifesting process and auto applies the carrier shipping label application in a single fully-automated step. There are a few choices of labeling technologies:

Auto Application of a 4” x 6” (or smaller) shipping label

Auto Application of a combination 4” x 6” removable pack slip and ship label

Auto application of a combination 8” x 11” full pack sheet and shipping label

If the requirements for every ecommerce order fulfillment shipment include a full packing sheet, with the company logo, product description, customer policies, a return label, and sales promotional coupons then a laser printed full pack sheet inserted into or placed on the outside of the carton is the best technology choice. If a 3PL or any distribution operation wants the ability to convey customer appreciation and help retain and promote future sales, automated documentation technology is a critical component.

An automated pack line can consist of as little as 20 feet of powered conveyor. A pack and ship conveyor is a critical operation component because it integrates the pack and ship flow and blends the automation technologies into an integrated solution. The conveyor of choice in packing is 24 VDC motor driven roller, MDR equipment. It provides a low energy, low noise and operator safe ergonomic work area.

MDR conveyor provides the ability to transport small cartons from 7” x 5” to the largest variety of carton sizes using zero touch transport and accumulation zones. It is ideally suited to pack and ship lines for integrating void fill, carton tapers, scales, print and apply labeling with packed, labeled and ready to ship cartons transported and sorted directly to the specific carrier pallet build or trailer loading destinations.

Numina Group’s family of automated packing solutions includes all of the above automation and labeling technologies.

Scan-Weigh-Dimensioning Consider the advantages a 3PL or distribution center has when every parcel shipment is automatically inspected using an in-line scan-weigh dimensioning system. DIM freight charges are now calculated by all the major parcel shippers: FedEx, UPS and USPS. Billable charges are based on a package’s Length X Width X Height divided by the carrier DIM factor (around 166) to determine a parcel’s shipping cost. The in-line DIM measurement system “closes the pick, pack and ship loop” using actual weight and size to validate the order content and ensure the lowest parcel shipment costs. Further validation can be incorporated by adding a vision audit camera for inspection.

One-Step-Plus

performs the full pack sheet print and placement under the removable shipping label. It auto applies the full 8.5” x 11” packing sheet with a removable label printed and securely placed under the label and to the top of the carton. If the case/order is, for example, an Amazon shipment, an additional 4 x 6 delivery label, a side applicator is included to auto apply the required retailer/e-tailer compliant label.

One-Step Plus has been widely used in medical device and pharmaceutical distribution applications that can’t open cases at the receiving operation. Hospital and medical centers require the order documentation to be on the outside of the parcel shipment

Automated Print Fold Insert – PFI

prints, folds, and inserts the pack sheet into the carton. The PFI

can also be used to insert documents at the start of an automated conveyor picking line into a carton or tote. Both One Step Plus

and PFI

technologies were developed to eliminate the labor spent printing, folding, inserting or applying packing sheets to parcel shipping applications.

The systems are ergonomically designed and supplied with the software controls and commissioning services as a single source solution. The systems both utilize the fastest high resolution printing technology to on demand print either a single sided or duplex sheet with the capabilities of printing graphics, customer logos, and terms and conditions at a rate of 13 CPM per unit. In higher volume operations, two or more parallel lines can double or triple the case per minute throughput. Each labeling line includes validation scanners to perform 100% label/documentation accuracy at 5 to 10 times the capabilities of manual operations.

Regardless of the warehouse, efulfillment is becoming a growing component of the operation. If 3PLs and Distribution Center’s need to minimize labor, they need automated labeling and manifesting technology that can run unattended during daily shipping spikes or peak 24/7 “Cyber Month” periods. Pack and ship automation can reduce over 50 seconds of labor from every order shipment by automating the order document shipping label so case and cartons can be processed and conveyed in a continuous operation and cartons and cases transported and sorted directly to the carrier delivery trailer.

Call to get additional facts on automating your pick, pack, ship and manifesting processes and plan to visit us at Modex 2018 booth B3519 to see the One-Step Plus and PFI in action. Plan to attend the Numina Group Educational Seminar: Automation to Boost Productivity in the Final 100’ of Distribution at Modex on Tuesday, April 10th 11:15-12:00 in Theater D.

Contact an Engineer

The post Accelerate Ecommerce Order Fulfillment Productivity by Automating the Last 100’ of the DC! appeared first on Numina Group.

[kidd-uk]

WATSP - Track By Track

WHERE ARE THE STRANGE PEOPLE?

KiDD

Making The Album - Track By Track

1.       Little Flower.     The backing track was created the day I bought a new synth. An Arturia Microbrute.  It’s got this great little programmable arpeggiator function that I fed some notes into randomly.  I played about with that until I found some chords that sounded nice over it and left it at that for a while.  It was a while before I returned to it with the idea that a set of lyrics I had written on holiday one year in Italy might fit.  The original idea had been floating around for a few years with a more fingerpicked guitar-style tune behind them, but I never really finished it.  I tried them over this little improvised piece and they fitted nicely so I discarded the original tune and used them here.  It’s all about the synths in the background for me though!

2.       An Afternoon In April.   This one stemmed entirely from a little thumb piano I found lying around The Tolbooth in Stirling that didn’t really make any kind of sensible notes but a really great wee honk.  I made a little rhythmic pattern and recorded it to my phone knowing that at some point I could use it somewhere.  It’s the little loop you hear at the start of the song.  All the music was written around that and the lyrics came much later once the whole thing had been arranged and recorded.  Very rarely do I leave lyrics until the end, but like most of the tracks on this album, the tune came first and I was really into making sounds rather than writing songs at first.  I had learned a lot of new recording and production techniques whilst working with Joe Kane on the Dr Cosmos stuff, and a lot of what you hear on this record is me at home, attempting to get to grips with a lot of them. The lyrics came from the title, which was one picked at random from my little book of titles that I keep for days when I fancy a bit of random inspiration!

3.       Cyan Seren.        This was one of my ‘dice games.’  I had previously developed a way of writing by chance using dice, something that was heavily inspired by Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies and the novel ‘The Dice Man’ by Luke Reinhart.  By rolling the dice several times before composing, certain writing and arrangement decision are made for me.  These are determined by several categories, each containing six different variables in each, leaving me to ‘fill in the blanks’ as it were.   Musically this entire song was written using that method, and even the title. The lyrics were inspired by a very dear friend of ours who had recently passed away and a star we bought in her name to remember her by. She will be forever in our skies.

4.       Independence Day.        Ian Thistlethwaite is a chap who played strings on the Poundstore Riot album, and came via Ash Cooke, my co-writing partner for that particular project.  I’ve never met him, or even spoke to him, but one day he sent me a demo of a song and asked me to record a version of it.  I re-arranged the whole thing, added some bits here and there and sent it back to him.  I’d say it’s probably about 70% his, but I loved how it turned out and it really fitted with the other songs I had recorded up until then, so I asked him if I could put it on my album.  I was chuffed when he agreed.  A lot of the tracks on this album have a kind of Joe Meek/Sci-Fi vibe to them.  This fitted right in!

5.       Satellites.           I was flying alone to New York a while ago to meet the rest of Gulp who I was drumming with at the time.  On the flight, I ended up sitting beside a chap who was from somewhere like Bradford but who had lived in New York for years working for a company navigating satellites that circled the earth.  His job was to steer them around to certain places at certain times for various reasons and I got the impression it was some kind of espionage.  I started to conjure up all sorts of images as him as some kind of secret service space-age spy and immediately the ‘this would make a song’ function in my brain started to whirr.  By the time I’d gotten through customs, most of the idea for this song was in my head and the little loop you hear at the beginning came from an app on my phone I programmed random notes into and then sung the melody over.  I had to borrow ma Da’s Stratocaster for the guitar parts at the end, as the Casino just wasn’t cutting the mustard.  

6.       Callisto.               Callisto is the second largest moon that orbits Jupiter.  I loved the name and it fitted nicely over this tune that sounded to me like it could have been one of the satellites being steered around by the chap from the previous song.  This was recorded on my old Tascam 4 track cassette recorder and then fed into the laptop and left exactly as it was aside from a few backwards guitar bits. It began life with me playing a drone with a few wine glasses over a  mic’d up snare drum and tuning my guitar to DADDAD.  Using an old delay pedal I began to steer the satellite around Callisto with the mysteries of the universe twinkling in the background…

7.       Modified Radio Birdsong.            Another ‘dice composition’ that began life on the Tascam 4 track.  I cut up a length of tape, stuck it back into the cassette and made some random loops which I then mixed together and fed into the laptop.  There it remained for some time as an instrumental, before I added lyrics at the 11th hour when I had a sick day from work (genuine!). Possibly because I was pretty feverish, I felt a bit self-conscious about them so I heavily disguised them with a vocoder and buried them a bit in the mix almost as soon as I’d recorded them, and then left it as it was.   This was probably the first thing I recorded for the album, and the last one I finished.

8.       Baby Bird.           Friends of mine had recently had a little baby girl. They sent us a picture and she just had this really beautiful wee face.  Her eyes were closed in the picture and her mouth slightly open.  For some reason it reminded me of when I was young and my Dad used to lift me up to peer into a bird box nailed to the garden shed when there were little baby blue-tits in it.  I would always pester him to lift me up again to look at them as soon as the parents flew off to find a worm or two to feed them.  As I thought of that memory, the lyrics pretty much all appeared fully formed, the idea the parents will work tirelessly for the wellbeing of their offspring.  Something which I myself now understand first hand!  

9.       Misty’s Golden Years.   This came from the book of titles and was another ‘dice composition’.  The idea for the title and the story came to me when I was leaving work one day and it stuck with me for ages before I finally sat down and tried to flesh out the lyrics.  It started off with a little guitar loop I played through a filter which you can hear at various points over the arrangement.  I ended up with far too many ideas for this one, and it took me some time to settle on a final arrangement with a lot of cutting and pasting going on.  How very untraditional, I can almost see Neil Young furrow his brow.  I kept hearing brass through it, but settled for mouth brass as I’d never fit a brass section in my cupboard.  It was also the last thing the old Casio VL-tone played before the batteries melted the insides and it had to get put down.  Gutted.

10.   Looking For The Way Out.           I wrote this the day the idiots of Britain outvoted the good to leave the EU.  I’m still in disbelief.  This is probably the most political I’ll ever get.  

11.   Where Are The Strange People? (part 2).             This was written in Italy when I was on holiday and had a little two octave USB keyboard with me.  I spent the whole holiday just recording little melodies on it with a view to coming home and writing Enoesque soundscapes over them all. I ended up with about six or seven that I really liked and have indeed created the soundscapes, but they are yet to see the light of day.  This one was one of my favourites.  The title came to me when I was in Wrexham, again with Gulp strangely enough!   I re-recorded the whole thing after I composed another bunch of 4 track cassette loops that just fitted the overall vibe of the tune.   I was listening a lot to EDIT by Linden around this time, and if you know that album, you’ll immediately hear the influence!!

[satelliteofmstielove]

K16 City on Fire

                                                    Roasted turkey

General notes

         …So. Hey. Remember when I used to make these, like, a long time ago? It’s been over a year since I worked on the guide, for various reasons involving school and reboot junk and other stuff, but mostly school and reboot junk. I won’t go into details because who cares. Let’s just move on and watch an episode of MST3K.

          This episode features a little more fan club talk, and not much else worth noting here. Let’s get to the watching. Guess who finally learned how to embed hyperlinks? Onward!

PS note: This movie contains quite a bit of unpleasant imagery, including a lot of people getting burnt throughout, a couple of distressed/dead animals, and a short surgery scene which begins about 1:17:30. Just thought I’d note it here for people who’d want to be warned.

Prologue

The Mads get a letter from the Mad Scientists League, an organization that will crop up in one form or another in various episodes down the line, such as Mitchell [512] and Girl in Gold Boots [1002]. Sometimes it’s called something different, but the idea is the same. Here, as in later mentions, they’re not really sure if the Mads’ brand of evil is really mad or scientific enough to qualify as mad science.

The official unofficial episode guide on Satellite News says that the comment Larry makes about Ken Keller has something do with a local university president, I think. I read it a long time ago and don’t really remember. I tried to go back and verify, but uh, I can’t get www.mst3kinfo.com to work for me. Is that just me or are other people having that problem? Did something happen to it that I haven’t heard about? (I haven’t been very active in the fandom for, like, more than a year, so I’m a little out of the loop about a lot of stuff.)

What kind of job do you think Larry had at the Pentagon? Do you think the “worked for two weeks, paid for two years” thing was actually part of the gig, or something he engineered for himself? Questions for the ages.

Apparently now the Mads get all of their research money from the MSL. I wonder what happened to all the money Clay won in Vegas a few episodes back. Guess they blew it all on who-knows-what already, which would not be surprising. Is Gizmonics as a whole funded by the MSL? In a previous episode, it sounded like the Mads had to meet some kind of standard for Gizmonics in order to work there, so maybe that’s related to the…look, I know it doesn’t matter, and the guys didn’t think any of this through when they made it up. They just threw it together 45 minutes before they taped the episode, not worrying how it fit together in the world. Which is totally fine. I just like to see if I can make it make sense, despite that. Coherence is not required in the MST universe, but it’s kind of amusing when you find it. At least to me.

Sounds like Larry’s already kinda bored with the “worst movie ever” experiment. I think Joel and the bots might be on the same page.

Uh, is Gizmonics not considered the private sector? Do they have government funding? If so, how the heck do they swing that? I realize the pork goes pretty far in this country, but thinly-veiled mad science seems like it would be pushing even that. They must have some kind of in with a senator or something. Maybe one is a Gizmonics alumni- politics would be a nice place to continue practicing evil.

Fruit inspection is apparently their only other option for a job. Ouch.

Clay, at least, seems to think the MSL doesn’t consider them mad enough because their experiment is too cutesy. I wonder if that’s what it said in the report. Personally, I wouldn’t really consider their movie selection cute, but I guess in comparison to the truly grade Z garbage that would come later, like Manos or Red Zone Cuba, I can see what they mean.

Huh, it heads straight into the movie without showing the S.O.L. first, without even the doorway sequence. I don’t think that’s happened before.

Movie pt. 1

Am I crazy, or do the theater seats look extra tiny and crowded together this time?

I like Servo’s wrestling-announcer-style reading of the title card at 3:58.

At 6:02- I can’t be the only one who automatically responds “McCloud.”

Crow sounds concerned about the smoothie (or whatever that’s supposed to be) at 6:30. He also mentions the many camera edits. Why does that scene have so many of those?

Josh interrupts Joel again at 6:56. I haven’t been keeping a count, but that’s gotta be at least 6 or 7 times over the course of the series.

At 14: 39, TV23 shows the time and temperature. Is that 6:15 AM or PM? Based on the 32° temperature, I’d guess morning, assuming this aired in March or April.

A transcript of the French that begins at 15:23, at least as well as my two years of high school French can tell: “Monsieur Pierre. Pas maintenant. Non, uh, après le mois demain à trois heures. Non, something something. Something bien something? Au revoir.”, which translates to “Mr. Pierre. Not now. No, uh, after the month, tomorrow at 3 o’clock. No, something something. Something good something? Goodbye.” You guys probably understood most of that without help, but still, there it is. (The après le mois could have actually been rapidement, meaning quickly, but I thought the former made slightly more sense in context. Or not. I don’t know, really.)

At 17:46, Tom mentions nude Shelley Winters photos in Joel’s room, and Joel shushes him. Sounds like maybe he has something to hide.

Joel and the bots keep predicting that maintenance guy will turn out to be a psycho. I can’t remember if they were reviewing part of the movies before using them by this point in the show’s run or not. They might have seen farther into the movie previously and know what’s going to happen. Let’s watch.

Man, it’s like 20 minutes into the movie and they’re still introducing whole new swaths of characters. Were people supposed to take notes while watching? Also, seriously? The city on fire is on fire because some dumb kids threw a cigarette? That’s…kinda disappointing. I was sort of hoping for gigantic explosion, and I’m not even usually a gigantic explosion kind of person.

Crow’s distressed about Mickey Mouse burning to death at 20:54.

Crow comment at 21:07 about same movies kinda sums up my feelings, as well.

The boys do a classic Lassie type sketch at 22:00.

There’s another interruption problem at 22:43, this time with Joel interrupting Josh. Afterwards, he asks Josh what he was going to say, and then says he was glad he interrupted him once he hears the riff. Burn. Crow/Trace even comments on it.

Uh, the boy in the striped shirt, Gerald or whatever his name is…to quote the Star Wars: Episode 1 RiffTrax, is it okay to say this kid sucks?

Crow thinks the movie is getting too scary as they leave the theater. He used to be quite a bit more sensitive early on, didn’t he? He still had his moments later in the series, though, like in Being from Another Planet [405] when he’s afraid of the basement.

Host Segment 1

The bots are doing something potentially suspicious with a telescope as we enter the bridge.

Joel brings up their supplies, saying somebody’s been overusing the oil. I don’t want to point fingers, but I’d guess it was Tom, seems like something he’d do. Then again, Crow has said in the past that WD-40 was his favorite lubricant, so maybe…

The bots aren’t listening to him, though- they’re trying to get their prank going. It’s surprising that Joel still falls for some of these by now, but I guess he’s not known for being really aware of his surroundings.

Servo was definitely the less innocent one if the first couple of seasons of the show. Crow had moments but Tom made his babe obsession a part of his personality.

Joel not only falls for the telescope eye ring prank, he rubs his eye all over it to be sure it gets on there really well. I’m sure they had to do that for the episode to make sure you could see it on camera, but it makes Joel look like he doesn’t know how to use a telescope. Maybe it’s just a weird telescope.

One thing I always liked about the bots- especially in the first few seasons but really throughout the show’s run- is how they don’t know so many basic things but still know details about, for instance, 1960s ad campaigns for cigarettes. It gives the impression that they have random parts of encyclopedias in their memory banks, which is probably true. I always felt like Joel probably dumped as much info as he could think of into the bots when he built them, but he couldn’t think of everything important at once, so they’ve got big holes in their knowledge base. For the purpose Joel built them for, it makes sense and works pretty well.

Poor Joel. He’s not the butt of the joke that often, at least not without getting back in some way.

Movie pt. 2

Crow’s confused at first by Joel’s comment about cattiness at 32:39.

At 37:55, Joel starts talking about seeing Orville Redenbacher get into a fistfight with his nephew at a party. I have no idea if this is true (though I doubt it) but maybe that eventually became the inspiration for the Orville Popcorn sketch in Godzilla vs. Megalon [212]. Odd how a weird little idea like that could stick around for so long.

Hm, I guess I did get my gigantic explosion after all. But somehow it still doesn’t fill the gaps in my heart…Actually that was really horrific. Geez.

Not important, but does anyone else think the psycho guy looks kinda like Peter Davison?

Joel laugh at 44:47, and a pretty enthusiastic one.

Huh, that movie section was unusually short.

Host Segment 2

Joel’s got an invention, which may have been inspired by the movie- Hell in a Handbag. This one, like many KTMA era inventions, will be reused in Season 1, in The Mad Monster [103].

Servo is not impressed by Crow’s flirting techniques with pretending-to-be-a-woman Joel and demonstrates his own. What is it with him and mangoes?

Joel got really into his part there for a second. Maybe he should have been in drag more often on the show, since, like, everyone else was. Actually maybe that was just all Mike.

Why would Joel program a thug algorithm into the bots? When did he ever think he’d need that? Maybe that explains what happens at the pinball machine in The Girl in Lovers Lane [509]. Also, I like how they can apparently just rummage through their own programming and find old stuff. Cool.

Joel seems to find the bots’ thug mode pretty funny. Maybe that’s why he programmed it into them.

Crow’s scared of the Hell-in-a-Handbag. Poor baby hahah. The way Joel grabs his neck affectionately afterwards is really cute, though. Joel says it was all in retaliation for the telescope prank earlier, but Servo didn’t seem phased, so really only Crow got punished. Crow’s also the only one who apologizes. Crow is always cute, but he’s extra cute in these old episodes. I just really love Crow, you guys.

Movie pt. 3

It’s called the Manson Refinery? That’s fitting, I suppose, with all the people it’s killed.

Crow falls right over backwards at 53:58. He and then Servo say they feel woozy. Understandable given the content of the scene. Ugh. But in reality, Trace was probably having trouble with the puppet. He has said in interviews that the KTMA Crow handled “like a T-square.”

At 56:18, Tom calls someone onscreen a “boinkus”? Doinkus, maybe?

Geez, nobody in this entire city has heard of stop, drop, and roll.

Host Segment 3

Joel and the bots do a little march/call and response thing. They’re having a little bit of trouble staying on beat, though (and on pitch). I like the song, though.

Joel’s jumpsuit is pretty fitted in the butt area. Just in case, you know, you were interested in knowing that.

They run down the hall with Cambot at Movie Sign. I’ve already forgotten if they’ve done that before in KTMA (that’s what happens when you go a year without working on your episode guide). They did it once or twice in the show proper, though not with the bots.

Movie pt. 4

Wow, seriously? First all the burning people, now surgery close-ups? How much pointlessly gross stuff is this movie going to include?

Also, dead bird shot, just to be sure everyone is sad. Why didn’t that kid just let the bird OUT OF THE CAGE? It can fly! That would at least give it a better chance.

And now the psycho’s comeuppance is getting anti-climatically crushed by a falling fire escape, and Shelley Winters dies too for no good reason? I haven’t even had anything to say about the riffers during this segment because stupid crap keeps happening in this movie.

Tom comments on how they killed off Shelley Winters in a stupid way, but the doctor guy somehow survives all the fire. I agree. This movie is stupid.

That’s the ending? THAT’S THE ENDING? Sappy music and romance and whatever, the city was on fire but hey it got put out (OFFSCREEN) so it’s all fine? Who cares about the thousands of victims and the millions in property damage? Not us, we’re kissing! Wow. Thanks for that, movie.

Crow gets excited about the name “McCrow” in the end credits at 1:37:22.

At 1:38:00, Servo begs to leave. At first Crow says they need to stay for the credits, but then agrees that they should go.

Servo also says goodbye to the audience as he leaves the theater.

Conclusion

Gypsy’s on deck for this segment, and Joel asks her where she’s been. Apparently “bumping into newsletters”. I wonder if she’s the one who printed them off.

Looks like back then you got a certificate for joining the fan club. I wonder if anyone out there still has theirs. Probably at least a few do.

I like Gypsy’s “ooh, aah” at the fan club membership card.

Crow tells the fans to keep more drawings coming. I guess he likes those.

Mr. Crow of Beverly Hills is still credited with the hair designs for the show.

Thoughts on the Movie

          A more accurate name for this movie would be Oil Refinery and Area Around a Hospital on Fire, since most of the city is never actually on fire. Not that I’d want to see it, but with a title like City on Fire you kind of expect to see a whole city on fire. All I’m saying is our expectations were mismanaged. Also, what was the point of burning the house earlier in the movie? Just to give us a fake-out? “Hah, you thought the fire was going to be earlier in the movie but instead, it was later in the movie!” You really got us there, guys.

          But jokes asides, this film mostly disgusted me. Does anyone want to watch long sequences of people getting burned alive? Do they like watching people endure terror and pain? It could be the filmmakers were just trying to underscore the dire situation, but it seems more like a sick fascination with showing suffering and death. I guess that’s common in movies and TV, in various forms, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. I talked about this a little in the entry for SST: Death Flight [K13], but it applies here again- pointless destruction of things and lives just doesn’t make good entertainment for me. Maybe a good disaster movie is about people overcoming and surviving in the face of horrible circumstances outside of their control. Certainly that’s not the case here. This movie becomes more a parade of lurid and gruesome imagery than anything else. No thank you. I guess maybe that’s why it wasn’t successful, hm.

          On a lighter note of criticism, did every friggin’ TV movie in the ‘70s have to be about 800 different people? Seriously, that’s SST: Death Flight, Superdome, San Francisco International, this movie- ok, I guess Stranded in Space wasn’t. Or Code Name Diamond Head. Or Mitchell. But those are sci-fi, spy, and cop movies, respectively, while the others are disaster/action/um, airport genre. Whatever. Point is, you do not need 437 different protagonists. Stop putting in 437 different protagonists.

          There’s not much else to say about this movie, I guess. The plot starts out confusing but converges and becomes somewhat less so as it goes along (though that's partially because several plot threads just drop off the map). Most of the acting is decent, some of the characters actually seem kind of interesting. Not every part of it sucks. Unfortunately, any of that mildly good stuff is buried in a pile of rubble and burnt bodies.

Review

          Despite my distaste for the movie, this was a funny episode. I laughed out loud many times and had a hard time picking a favorite riff (though I did pick one- Crow: That’ll wake the dog up.) The guys are really starting to get good at this. Even with the slower pace of the improv riffing, it doesn’t really feel empty like some of the older eps do. That may have something to do with a more action-filled movie, too, but the jokes are definitely improving. While the movie is not as watchable, funny-wise I’d call this as good an episode as SST: Death Flight, which I previously called the best KTMA ep. Nice job, guys.