Author: joseph

AND NOW THE SHIPPING FORECAST ISSUED BY THE MET OFFICE, ON BEHALF OF THE MARITIME AND COASTGUARD AGENCY, AT 0505 ON WEDNESDAY 09 MARCH 2005

THE GENERAL SYNOPSIS AT MIDNIGHT HIGH 50 MILES WEST OF ROCKALL 1041 EXPECTED SOUTHWEST ROCKALL 1038 BY MIDNIGHT TONIGHT

THE AREA FORECASTS FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS

…

LUNDY FASTNET NORTH OR NORTHEAST 3 OR 4. MAINLY FAIR. GOOD

IRISH SEA NORTH BACKING NORTHWEST 3 OR 4, OCCASIONALLY 5 LATER. MAINLY FAIR. GOOD

This file is updated 4 times a day at or after approximately 0015, 0505, 1130 and 1725. It is read out on Radio 4 at 0048, 0536, 1201 and 1754 (local time). All broadcasts are on LW on 1515m (198 kHz) and some transmissions are on VHF.

Three episodes of Radiohead.tv are now available.

The image below appears in Radiohead.com‘s Scrapbook section.

It reads (approximate):

le chien-loup
Dog-wolf

–the hair of the dog
when you can’t recognize
a Dog of wolf

This early print of “Le Chien-Loup” is by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788). There is a book entitled Le chien-loup by Jean Ferniot. There is also an extensive web site on the breed, one with an interesting history: “In the year 1955 a biological experiment took place in the CSSR of that time, namely, the crossing of a German Shepherd Dog with a Carpathian Wolf.” Reader andres bisserier suggests the phrase “when you can’t recognize / a Dog or wolf” may mean “something like ‘when you can’t tell if it’s a threat.'”

The inestimable Mel from W.A.S.T.E. has provided web sites with a link to Ether Festival Information regarding an upcoming performance by Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke: “Following on from sold out concerts for the last two Ether Festivals, the London Sinfonietta returns for two evenings of cross-genre juxtaposition with contributions from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke. The concerts will include the classical Arabic song, Enta Omri (music by Abdel-Wahab, lyrics Ahmed Shfq Kamel, sung originally by Oum Kalthom) and the pioneering sounds of composers Penderecki and Messiaen. Radiohead television will also be screened throughout the night featuring video, animations and music from the band’s Hail To The Thief album as well as unreleased tracks. Plus live sonic generated visuals.”

General information on the Ether Festival is available here. Ether is “a colorless volatile highly inflammable liquid formerly used as an inhalation anesthetic.” It was also thought to be “the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water … the substance composing all heavenly bodies.” The word “festival,” according to the OED is from the Old French “festival” from the Latin “festivus.”

The Ether Festival information mentions “the pioneering sounds of composers Penderecki and Messiaen.” Information on Krzysztof Penderecki is here and here. Olivier Messiaen has an extensive web site devoted to his life and work. Rebecca Rischin has published the book For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet on the the composition and first performance of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” in a German POW camp in 1941.

An RSS (Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary) feed is available for Pulk-Pull* here. RSS can also stand for Radar Signal Simulator, Radial Shaft Seal, and Radio Security Service (UK).

On February 11 an article appeared in the Times Higher Education Supplement about The Music and Art of Radiohead. Though the article was available online to subscribers only, it is accessible here.

The bottom “Threat Level” frame of Radiohead.com’s Scrapbook section now includes the following series of acronyms:

MIRV/GLCM/ALCM/SLBM/ICBM/SDI

These are largely US Department of Defense acronyms for military weapons and/or programs:

MIRV: Multiple Independently-Targeted Reentry Vehicle
GLCM: Ground-Launched Cruise Missile
ALCM: Air Launched Cruise Missile
SLBM: Submarine/Sea-Launched Ballistic Missile
ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
SDI: Strategic Defense Initiative

While these acronyms can stand for other things (ICBM can also mean “International Charismatic Bible Ministries” and “Irredundant Consecutive Branch Method”), the military-industrial context is the most likely choice.

In the “Scrapbook” section of Radiohead.com, one randomized caption reads:

yes, tis the pulse of the life! my fears were in vain!
i wake i breathe, and myself again. don’t feel a thing.

This lines are an inexact quotation of Samuel Roger‘s “Verses Written To Be Spoken by Mrs. Siddons” from his 1814 Poems. The first eight lines form a verse paragraph:

Yes, ’tis the pulse of life! my fears were vain!
I wake, I breathe, and am myself again.
Still in this nether world; no seraph yet!
Nor walks my spirit, when the sun is set,
With troubled step to haunt the fatal board,
Where I died last–by poison or the sword;
Blanching each honest cheek with deeds of night,
Done here so oft by dim and doubtful light.

As this essay by Heather McPherson shows, Mrs. Siddons was a popular topic for late eighteenth-century poetry.

In the labyrinth of Radiohead.com’s current incarnation, readers can find two pieces of hotel stationary with scribbled lyrics and song titles. The first piece of stationary is from Chateau Marmont in Hollywood, California. The image:

It reads:

brush cobwebs out of sky
im with stupid >
the boney king of nowhere
backdrifts

while rome bleeds

its not you, its your government
moon mall
motheaten
genie let out of the bottle
gene lt out of a bottle

The second piece of stationary is from a Vila Galé Hotel in Portugal. The image:

It reads:

something big is
gonna happen
me me me all [unreadable]
someone’s son or someone’s daughter

we don’t want the loonies taking over
over my dead body
its your future so get used to it
over my dead body
riff

Samuel J.P. Shaw has written an essay entitled “Where Murakami Ends and Radiohead Begins: A Comparative Study” available online at exorcising ghosts, a site of Haruki Murakami resources in English (the essay is also available as a Word file). The essay finds compelling correspondences betweem Murakami’s novels and Radiohead’s music. Murakami has been interviewed by Salon.com, and Thom Yorke has mentioned reading his novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, as Shaw notes in his essay.