Deedlecast

Between the ideaAnd the realityBetween the motionAnd the actFalls the Shadow T.S. Eliot This week, DJDeedle crosses the streams and lets the shadows, ghosts, spirits, and phantasms take over Deedlecast studios to dance and rattle their chains and bones. Caution: this Deedlecast contains a ghastly word.

This week, DJDeedle has saved you a pew in a church of a naughtier variety:  The Church of Cherry Chapstick.  At this church, you may hear and do some extraordinary things.  It feels so wrong, it feels so right.

This is not a full Deedlecast, but rather a very short single.  DJDeedle friend and radio pioneer, John Pemble, is a master of the ambient drone musical genre, a type of music that patiently explores particular sounds, tones, or musical phrases by sustaining them for extended periods and varying them slightly.  Pemble has produced an album of his musical and tonal creations, called "Subtle Reminders: Juno 60 Ambient Electronic Music."  John's album is available for purchase on Itunes and Amazon, and I highly recommend doing so by following the link provided on his website, http://johnpemble.com.  This DJDeedle single is a combination of one of Pemble's album tracks, "Intimate Softness," and "Out of Time," from the soundtrack of the BBC series, "Torchwood."  John Pemble's subtle and moving F major tones just weave seamlessly with those of the orchestral television piece.

Radio, that venerated invention, has reinvented itself more times than Madonna.  According to the radio experts, radio has had many incarnations:

Radio 1.0 - Martin Block / Make Believe Ballrooms, Classical Radio Drama. Radio 2.0 - DJ’s and talk shows. Radio 3.0 - Digital automation and radio groups along with the mainstreaming of public radio.  Radio 4.0 – TBD

For radio, the times are always a-changin'.  This week DJDeedle salutes his friends in the radio industry who daily reinvent radio to keep it new and fresh, yet classic and familiar.  

Stop by and visit these radio pioneers: 

Todd Mundt at http://toddmundt.com/blog/

John Pemble at http://johnpemble.com/

Grab your communicator, phaser, tricorder, and that weird spinny lipstick thing Dr. McCoy uses, and report to Transporter Room 2 for immediate transport to another unexplored part of the Deedleverse.  Trust me, you'll be going to a place vastly more fun than that purple-sky planet on the Paramount backlot.

This Deedlecast, "Metropolis," is inspired by the recent news that key scenes from the controversial and somewhat inscrutable

1927 silent film,"Metropolis," have been rediscovered in Argentina.  Upon its initial release, according to Zeitmagazin, "the film flopped with critics and audiences alike. Representatives of the American firm Paramount considerably shortened and re-edited the film. They oversimplified the plot, even cutting key scenes. The original version could only be seen in Berlin until May 1927 – from then on it was considered to have been lost forever."   Cutting key scenes and re-editing the film had the effect of making its true meaning opaque and the film nearly incomprehensible; but it created a haunting and mysterious work of cinematic art.  With these new scenes, the mystery of the true meaning of the film "Metropolis" and the controversy that has surrounded the timeless film since 1927 may finally have been laid to rest.  With the passing of this mystery, DJDeedle feels that the world loses something intangible, yet valuable, and creates a "Metropolis" soundscape filled with inscrutable and controversial electronic aural inputs he hopes are worthy of the look, feel, and mystery of this enduring cinematic masterpiece.

Mad wicked Photoshop skills courtesy of Chris Spinosa

Modern demands and technology have made us all robots of one kind or another these days. But even robots need music. Not unlike ourselves, songs of love, loneliness, lust, loyalty, longing, and loss nourish their circuits and gears. No matter what kind of robot you happen to be, this Deedlecast will speak to you. All robots depicted in this Deedlecast are purely fictional, and have no relation to me.

This Deedlecast features a treatment of Weekend Players' "I'll be There for You." Take a moment and revisit DJDeedle's arrangment of this same song at Tu ne's pas oublie.

Most US telephone customers are familiar with Jane Barbe (pronounced

"Barbie") (July 29, 1928—July 18, 2003).  Even though few of us ever met her, we have all heard her voice many times and know her as the "Telephone Lady" or the "Time Lady."  Jane Barbe was an American voice actress who did the later voice recordings for the Bell System.  Her voice is

heard by millions of people every day speaking for the telephone networks (changed

numbers, disconnects, circuits busy, etc.), Bell Laboratory computers, The National Bureau of

Standards, announcing ETC's Audichron® (formerly Audichron Company) time, temperature, and weather services, and on

many voice mail systems nation wide. Her predecessor was Mary Moore,

who was known for using a distinctive pronunciation of 9 (Ny-un) and 5

(Fy-uv).  The distintive pronunciation was required because, on a poor

quality line, "nine" and "five" can sound very similar.

DJDeedle dedicates this Deedlecast to these telephonic legends.  Just note.  Those too young to remember who "Ma Bell" was may be too young for some of the language in this podcast.