A Return To Talus

It is official: Iron Blogger is back on!  My friend Eli Stickgold started a blog called Nemesis Program, and as it appears neither of us can blog on a regular basis without the threat of buying each other beer, we restarted Iron Blogger.  If either of us misses a post, we owe the other a beer.  The current plan is to post once every 2 weeks.  Eli will, no doubt, be disappointed that I am making this week's Friday deadline. 

In honor of the re-start of Talus Slopes, today's post will feature photos of talus slopes themselves!  I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the subject.  My other Eli friend, Eli Alford-Jones, can back me up. 

Talus slopes are generally formed when rocks break off of a cliff face or mountain.  The rocks tumble down the slope, coming to rest in a large pile of "talus."  A majestic example:

 

(from mnlamberson's flickr photostream)

Snow-covered talus:

(from Dru!'s flickr photostream)

Off-roadin' through the talus:

(from Chazz Layne's flickr photostream)

Endless talus slopes:

(from Laurel Fan's flickr photostream)

And finally, here is a photo of me, supporting an entire talus slope on my back while climbing Mt. Adams in Washington.

No beer for Eli Stickgold this week!  

Welcome back to Talus Slopes.

New Music

Hello again, everyone... it's been a while, but here is a blog post!  I've been doing some skiing, hiking, running, etc. since I last posted -- and seeing some quality talus while I'm at it -- but today I'm going to post about some interesting new music that I found.

I will start with some superchromatic music, which is the result of trying to squish more than 12 notes into a scale.  The result is something that sounds very alien and wrong.  My current favorite example sounds like Bach composed it after taking a few too many funny pills: click here.  My favorite part is 2:35-2:50, because of the amazing superchromatic scale followed by something that sounds like messed-up video game music.

Continuing down the path of strange music brings us to Glassbreaks, an album of Philip Glass/hip hop remixes.  I know, it sounds crazy, but the pairings were made so impeccably well that I think every song works!  Now that I've listened to the album a few times, I can't imagine the hip hop songs without Philip Glass in the background.  (For those unfamiliar with Philip Glass, one of his more famous pieces is Metamorphoses II, for comparison.)  The Glassworks track that demonstrates the Philip Glass/hip hop synergy best, while avoiding an R-rating, is probably Stand Up Dance. 

There are many other good tracks, with varying degrees of obscenity... so proceed with caution.  In particular, I think the remix of Lil' Jon (seriously one of the most obscene rappers out there) with Philip Glass's operatic work "Akhnaten" is quite inspired.  I did tell you he is a very obscene rapper, though, so again, proceed with caution.  If you would like to listen to the remainder of the album, it is here: clicky clicky clicky.

Lastly, William Shatner is releasing a new album this year, and it appears that the track listing includes, among other things, Bohemian Rhapsody.  Quoth my dad, "My life is complete."

The next post will have more pretty pictures. 

-- Joy