Altered Sound

Hello, welcome to Altered Sound. I’m your host, Lu-Ke-Tan, and you’re listening to PRA radio. streaming live online at praradio.org. Our podcasts are provided curtesy of tablesturned.com, and if you want a copy of today’s podcast, visit alteredsound.com. Today is Thursday, November 30th, and today’s show is entitled “To Have Done With The Judgement of a Golden Record”. If you’re listening to us live, and reside in Portland, I have a couple bits of news for you: First, on December 2nd, this saturday from 9 till close, PRA will be hosting a benefit to get some new dj equipment at located at Rotture, 315 SE third Street. Second, the following Monday, December 5th, Tori Multon and I will be playing our guitar-saw-voice-space folk thing, Saw n Awe, at the Coffee Time on NW 21st and Irving. Lastly, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, a play by Dale Wasserman based on the book by Ken Kesey is running through the 10th of December on Thursday’s,Friday’s, and Saturday’s at 8pm, Sunday’s at 4pm, at the Theatre!Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont.
Today’s composition is mostly based on elements retrieved from the “golden record”. The “golden record” refers to a phonograph record that was placed on board the two Voyager Spacecraft launched by NASA in the year 1977. This record was intended to convey a holistic, friendly image of the earth to whoever,wherever, and whatever aliens may find it. Being that it was made in 1977 in the United States under the presidency of Jimmy Carter, and today is 2006 and the United States suffers under the regime of the second George Bush, it seems as if the message it conveys does come from a strage, alien place.
Along with simple images and sounds such as a baby sucking at it’s mother’s teet(which today would be considered quite offensive and smutty), are messages of peace and good tidings in over 55 languages. Here are some of my personal favorites (and I know sometimes translations can suffer):

–cue Aramaic
Aramaic: “Peace”
–cue Vietnamese
Vietnamese: “We sincerely send you our friendly greetings”
–cue Amoy
Amoy: “Friends of space, how are ya’ll? Have you eaten yet? Come see us soon”
–cue Bengali
Bengali: “Hello! Let their be Peace everywhere”

Can something like that last statement be made in America these days? Much less said by a body of the US government? They wrote the patriot act for a reason, and that was to make sure terroristic memes such as these weren’t diseminated to the public.

In addition to the ranting and raving in different languages of obvious lunatics who want peace instead of war, the rest of today’s composition consists of pieces of a radio play that was originally recorded at Radio France, and later censured by them, entitled “To Have Done With The Judgement of God”, and again I know that sometimes translations can suffer. “To Have Done With The Judgement of God” was written by the theatre theorist, and as a result of this radiophonic creation, trailblazing DJ, Antonin Artaud. It was originally supposed to air in 1948, but it’s strong anti-american, anti-religious, and scatalogical nature resulted in it being cancelled. By all accounts, it would appear to be the work of a lunatic (some folks call them ‘touched’), but you know how lunatics can sometimes have an odd prescience to them. A translated qoute:

“Americans are finding more and more that they lack muscle
and children,
that is, not workers
but soldiers,
and they want at all costs and by every possible means to make
and manufacture soldiers
with a view to all the planetary wars which might later take place”

It’s sort of hard to listen to, what with the nonsense words created by Artaud, a man who had spent the majority of the past decade in an insane asylum getting things like coma-inducing insulin treatments and shock therapy,the eerie screams in a stairwell, the dischordant xylaphones, and the deification of shit. It wasn’t played on Radio France until thirty years later, roughly the time the two voyager spacecraft were blasted off into space with their message of peace on a golden platter.

This is Lu-Ke-Tan with Altered Sound, brought to you live via praradio, praradio.org. I’ll leave you with excerpts from a statement made by President Carter and sent off with the Golden Record:

“This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization…
This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our toughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe”

Other than one brief mention a month or so earlier, I had never heard of Antonin Artaud before a week ago, when I borrowed the book “The Theatre and It’s Double” from a friend. Likewise, I didn’t know all that much about the Golden Record either. Sources include:
“The Theatre and It’s Double” by Antonin Artaud, UBU web, Wikipedia, WFMU, snarkout, and an anonymous translation of “To Have Done With The Judgement of God”

For the golden record, I recieved the sound samples from an online repository reached via Wikipedia and available as a link from alteredsound.com. I also made use of the books “NASA’s Voyager Missions” by Ben Evans and “Voyager’s Grand Tour” by Dethloff and Schorn, both available at the Multnomah County Library, and always much thanks to the librarians at both Central and NorthWest branches.

 Standard Podcast [36:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hello, and welcome to the third episode of “altered sound”. I’m your host Lu-Ke-Tan, and you’re listening to PRA, portland’s finest pirate music station, streaming live on praradio.com. Podcasts provided courtesy of tablesturned.com, and available at altered sound’s own website, alteredsound.com. Today is nov. 23rd 2006, also known as the fourth Thursday in November, or Thanksgiving here in the United States. A day to give thanks to nature and all her bounty. Back in 1621, when the pilgrims at plymouth celebrated their first harvest, a harvest festival was common to both the Wampanoag already there and the new arrivals. In those early days, before the genocides, the english and Wampanoag celebrated for three days the joyful abundence of nature’s bounty. These days…well things are different these days. The only place you’re likely to see a native american and an immigrant american together on thanksgiving is in the mission line or in a parking lot, waiting for some gringo to come by and pick them up hoping for a days work at less than a days wages. But we’re not interested in today, not interested in the National Day of Thanksgiving, today’s show is about the song and dance that helped conclude the third day of the Thanksgiving festival of the Omaha tribe, recorded on cylinders in 1895.

A lot was going on in the year 1895, or rather the year 1273 on the Persian Calendar. In Holyoke Massachusets, william g. morgan invented the game called Mintonette, which gained it’s current moniker, “volleyball”, a year later. Oscar Wilde’s last play, “the importance of being earnest” debuted in london. John Wesley Hardin is shot to death in a saloon in El Paso, Texas. alfred noble, swedish philantropist and the creator of dynamite, benefactered his ‘noble prize’. And just north of present day omaha, nebraska Alice Fletcher and Francis LaFlesche made some of the very first entries in the field of ethnomusicology by recording and transcribing songs of the omaha tribe.

—–cue indian drum loop.

“On the third day of the Thanksgiving festival the Hae-de-wache or tribal dance took place …. The dance was highly dramatic especially that part wherein the past experiences of the warriors was depicted. The scene was full of action and color, the whole tribe took part in it; every one was in gala dress, there was hardly an Omaha too old or too young not to have upon him some token of this festivity. Fragments of ancient tribal rites are discernible in this dance, as well as bits of tribal history; the music . . . [is] fitted to the movements of the dancing men and women as they pass in a vast circle around a pole, the male singers and drummers sitting at its base(1893, p. 20).”

—–exit indian drum loop

Alice Fletcher, the main recorder of these songs, after living amongst the indians for many years, one day awoke to realize she was a ’stranger in her native land’. Once she was able to feel comfortable again, to recognize the history of every plant, animal, and stone around her, she found herself closer to nature than she had ever been before. Thus was her experience with Indian music. As she tells it:

—– cue in prayer sung as two bearers hold up sacred pipes.

“While studying Indian life and thought through the sharing, as far as possible, of native conditions, I discovered Indian music. In the loneliness that naturally belonged to my circumstances this discovery was like finding a flower hidden in a tangle hard to penetrate. I had heard Indians “singing,” but the noise of the drum, the singers’ stress of voice, so overlaid the little song that its very existence was not even suspected… great was my surpise to hear music… my ears were opened and never again, no matter how confusing the conditions, did I fail to catch the hidden melody. As my appreciation of the value of Indian music grew, I determined to gather and to preserve these wild flowers of song. I wanted them not merely as a contribution to the study of music but that they might help to vibrate chords that belong to a common humanity.”

—– fade out prayer ….

Todays episode contains five samples, gotten from the online repository of omaha indian music at the united states library of congress.
Get out the headphones, listen, and I hope that you enjoy. This is Lu-ke-Tan, and you’re listening to altered sound on praradio.com

Thanks for listening. Obviously I wasn’t around in 1895, and information for this podcast was found online in the wikipedia and at the library of congress website. I also made use of the following books from the moltnomah county library:
Omaha Tribal Myths And Trickster Tales, Roger Welsch
Blessing for a long time, the sacred pole of the omaha tribe, robin ridington & dennis hastings
A Stranger in her native land: Alice Fletcher and the American Indians by Joan Mark
and the following books by Alice Fletcher:
Indian Story and song from north america
Indian games and dances with native songs
You’re listening to PRA, the portland radio authority. The is Lu-ke-tan for altered sound. Find this full text and the podcast at alteredsound.com. Happy X-giving.

 Omaha Indian Music [52:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hello, and welcome to the second episode of Altered Sound, brought to you live from the Boulier Building in inner SW Portland. I’m your host Lu-Ke-Tan, and you’re listening to PRA, Portland’s finest pirate music station, streaming online at praradio.com. It’s Nov. 16th, and the title for today is “Kreaking, Rolling, and Lifting”.

The elevator is a very perticular machine. It’s one of the only forms of machinery that I know of that transports you vertically, although I imagine you could have an elevator that would transport you sideways and slantways and longways and backways and squareways and front ways and any other ways that you can think of– but the ones that I always go in just seem to go up and down, up and down, up and down.

Just like WKRP, PRA’s station haas got some height on the penthouse level, and we have a nice woman who runs the elevator during business hours. She’s nice not just because she does seem to be a sincerely nice person, but she’s nice because when she isn’t there, you have to start climbing. I’ve had to do it before, and I’d hate to be a smoker and have to run the midnight shift here every night.

I sort of wondered about that job, elevator operator. Are there any vacancies? They all seem to be run by old timers, and maybe when they’re gone it’s time to either tear down the building or at least upgrade the elevators. Although you might have to relocate to acquire one of these choice positions, for anyone interested in becoming an elevator operator, I did find a couple of vacancies on the internet. Here’s some of the job description, curtesy of careerbuilder.com:

–cue elevator noise

PUSHES BUTTONS OR MOVES LEVER TO CONTROL MOVEMENT OF ELEVATOR ON SIGNAL OR INSTRUCTIONS FROM PASSENGERS OR OTHERS.

OPENS AND CLOSES SAFETY GATE AND DOOR OF ELEVATOR AT EACH FLOOR WHERE STOP IS MADE.

SUPPLIES INFORMATION TO PASSENGERS.

MAY SWEEP OR VACUUM ELEVATOR.

–exit elevator noise

Something that does most assuredly transport you horizontally, or at least me and all the other folks who can’t afford a car or the gas to put in one, is the BUS. And Portland has a real impressive, integrated mass transit system. I think there are at least a hundred different bus lines that run daily, plus the streetcar and the Max. My Personal least favorite of all the bus lines has got to be the 20. I think they numbered it twenty because that’s how many minutes you can expect to wait irregardless of what time you arrive or what the shedule posted says. No disrespect intended to the drivers of route 20, or tri-met. I recognize it as the inability to have a bus that runs up and down the main thouroughfare in the city that respects any sort of schedule, especially with the burnside bridge under construction.

–cue bus noise

I almost called off my trip to the Kool Kieth show last Friday in frustration after waiting for what seemed like forever for the 20 to show up. I placed my handy edirol r-09 so that it layed flat on the bus, and tried to catch the thick humm of the engine.

–exit bus noise

–cue floor noise
Another fairly popular way of transporting oneself, vertically or horizontally, is by feet.
Whether it’s pacing the floor or walking up stairs, if you’re in a building that’s old enough to have wood floors, chances are you’ll find a squeek somewhere. I like this creak that I found in the room where I’m staying at the flophouse.

It makes for good percussion.

–exit floor noise

Enough chit-chat, let’s hear some altered sounds. The following composition was created using samples of floors kreaking, busses rolling, and elevators lifting. Get out the headphones, listen, and please do enjoy. This is Lu-Ke-Tan for PRA Radio.

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Altered Sound, brought to you live from the Boulier Building in inner southwest portland. I’m your host Lu-Ke-Tan, and you’re listening to pra, portland’s finest pirate music station, streaming online at praradio.com. It’s Nov. 9th, 2006, and the three word title for today’s episode is “rains, hubers, and hazel”.

If you’re listening to us live, call up the station at 503-22BLAST to get put on the guestlist for some upcoming shows. Call at 12:15 to get two tickets to Dr. Octogon at the Doug Fir this Friday. Then, at 12:30 call up, again the number is 503-22BLAST, to get two tickets to Frank Black at the Wonder Ballroom, next tuesday nov. 14th.

Also, in case you’ve been interested in seeing the famous Japanese Gardens but were afraid of plunking down the big change required to get in the door, I just found out this morning that tomorrow, Friday Nov. 10th, is “Free Admission Day” at the Japanese Garden of Portland, hours 10-4, and this includes “Autumn Leaves”, the world-renown Pacific Rim Bonsai exhibit. Maybe the good weather will hold up for it.

It’s nice to look out the window and see sunshine, you know it’s a good day when the rain takes a break.
While not Seattle, almost anyone who’s spent the rainy season in Portland can assure you that we get a fair amount of rain here. It’s not that it rains every second of the day, just when you walk the dog or otherwise desire to step outside.
The latest Public Information Statement released by the National Weather Service came out at 650 this past Tuesday morning:
–cue rains–
…HEAVY RAIN BRINGS FLOODS TO NORTHWEST OREGON AND SOUTHWEST
WASHINGTON RIVERS…

THE FINAL IN A SERIES OF STORMS OVER THE PACIFIC BROUGHT HEAVY RAIN
TO NORTHWEST OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SUNDAY AFTERNOON
THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING.

OF SPECIAL NOTE IS THE RAINFALL TOTAL AT LEES CAMP…A RAIN GAGE
ABOUT 15 MILES EAST OF TILLAMOOK NEAR HIGHWAY 6 IN THE NORTHWEST
OREGON COAST RANGE. THIS GAGE RECORDED 13.2 INCHES OF RAIN FOR
MONDAY ALONE AND ABOUT 26 INCHES FOR THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY. THIS
EXCEPTIONALLY HEAVY RAIN RESULTED IN MAJOR FLOODING ON THE WILSON
RIVER IN TILLAMOOK. PRELIMINARY DATA INDICATES A NEW RECORD FLOW
OCCURRED MONDAY NIGHT ON THE WILSON OF ABOUT 38000 CUBIC FEET PER
SECOND…WHICH BREAKS PREVIOUS RECORD FLOWS OF ABOUT 35000 CFS IN
1972…FEB 1996…AND DEC 1998. AS OF 6 AM TUESDAY…SEVERAL RIVERS
REMAIN ABOVE FLOOD STAGE…WHILE OTHERS ARE STILL RISING AND MAY
REACH FLOOD STAGE TUESDAY MORNING. REFER TO ALL FLOOD WARNINGS IN
EFFECT FOR MORE INFORMATION AT WEATHER.GOV/PORTLAND.

All samples played today were caught using my handy edirol r-09 portable recorder. The rain you here behind me was recorded in an empty, used up flophouse with broken gutters in the NW.
–cue out rain–

The best and most often extolled excuse to get off of the cold wet streets of Portland is to get some coffee. If I had my druthers, it would be spanish coffee. And Huber’s is the place to go for spanish coffee(according to the only numbers that I could find, in 1990 they went through roughly 32 cases of Kahlua a month) . Although the serving of spanish coffees didn’t become big until James Louie came up with his unique way of serving the drink in 1975, Huber’s has been in constant business since 1879. First as a saloon giving away turkey sandwiches to entice their customers to come in and drink, then to a restaurant (and speakeasy) during prohibition, then back to a bar. The even continued serving drinks and turkey through the flood of 1894. It’s been in it’s current location since 1911.

–cue bar noise–
The main bar is located in the middle of the Pioneer Building, and it’s a wonderful throw back to another, older age. And a great place to capture the cacophony of voices, with it’s arched ceilings, it’s thick phillipine mahogany bar with the warmth and veneer that can only be achieved with almost a century’s worth of daily polish. It’s never too loud, and never too soft. Dig it if you can, it’s hard not to have a good time there- and don’t forget to tell the bartender who sent you.
–cue out bar noise–

Hazel Hall lived up the street from me roughly a hundred years ago. A literal shut-in, she watched the world through her attic window, heard the rain and the walkers pass by on the street below. She published two books of poetry: “Curtains” in 1920, named after the curtains hung on her window through which she watched the world, and “The Walkers” in 1923, consisting of her perceptions of the people she heard on the sidewalk underneath, and whom she observed through the mirror she had placed on the windowsill to watch while she worked, making money to help support her family with fine custom sewing. A third book, “Cry of Time”, was written in response to a dream Hazel Hall had foreshadowing her death two weeks later. It was published posthumously.
Her poems are sad, intricate pieces. They tell of the sadness that exists between the coffee and the rain, and spell out in sometimes painfully simple, sometimes amazingly complex, the utter bareness of a life spent watching a world through rain-splatterd window panes.

I’ll be reading poems from “Curtains” and “The Walkers”, both of which available at the multnomah county library, and playing altered forms of both the rain and Huber’s sample’s that we’ve heard earlier.

Get out the headphones, listen, and most of all I hope you enjoy. This is Lu-Ke-Tan for PRA Radio.

 Rain, Huber's, Hazel [58:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download