Music
Music-Loving Peacocks of Budapest
-Ciba Symposia, Feb 1942, p.1150.
The Budapest Zoo is still hosting evening concerts, almost eighty years later, and according to the Budapest Times, the zoo's peacock still enjoys the music:
(image source)
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 02, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: Animals, Music
Brazil MTV Animation
VMB 2011 from CONSULADO on Vimeo.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 29, 2012 -
Comments (3)
Category: Music, Rube Goldberg Devices, Cartoons, South America
The Music of Hitchhiker Graffiti
Around 1941, American composer Harry Partch was walking along the highway outside Barstow, California (in the Mojave Desert). He sat down to rest, and then he noticed that hitchhikers had written graffiti all over the white railing that ran along the side of the road. He transcribed the graffiti and turned it into a musical composition he called "Barstow: Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions." Click here to read the text of the graffiti. In the clip below, you can hear Partch himself perform the song. Blogger (and composer) Drew Baker describes the piece as "a surreal and sometimes inebriated sound world." How would you describe it?Apparently quite a few people have looked for the graffiti that inspired Partch, but I haven't read of anyone finding it.
Partch was also known for creating strange musical instruments such as the Crychord, Surrogate Kithara, Harmonic Canon, Eucal Blossom, and the Spoils of War. In the picture below, he's playing his "Cloud Chamber Bowls" that he made out of pyrex containers, cut in half, that had been used in cloud chamber experiments at the University of California Radiation Laboratory.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 26, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Music
Let Go
Please follow the singer's advice to abandon all hopes and preconceptions when viewing this video.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 23, 2012 -
Comments (7)
Category: Music, Surrealism, Cartoons, Psychedelic
The Jazz Harpsichord of Stan Freeman
If Pugsley Addams had grown up to be a hepcat, this is the music he would have made.
More on the keyboard player here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 21, 2012 -
Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Music, 1950s
Groovy Summertime
Happy Solstice!
Info on the band.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 20, 2012 -
Comments (9)
Category: Music, Nature
Sungha Jung
There's nothing like a guitar prodigy to brighten one's weird day. Sungha Jung is currently 15 years old, but he looks even younger in these videos.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 15, 2012 -
Comments (5)
Category: Music, Asia, Child Prodigies
Moondog
Moondog (1916-1999) was one of the great eccentrics of the 20th Century. He spent much of his life living homeless on the streets of New York, dressed in a Viking outfit. But he also composed and recorded music that continues to be popular and very influential. (Many of his records are on iTunes.) If you haven't heard of him before, the wikipedia page about him is as good a place to start as any. Or listen to his music. Lots of clips on youtube.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jun 14, 2012 -
Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Music
Sailor Boys Have Talked to Me in English
A superb addition to our thread of casually racist pop songs.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jun 11, 2012 -
Comments (6)
Category: Music, Racism, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1950s
Constipation Blues
Posted By: Paul - Tue May 29, 2012 -
Comments (3)
Category: Eccentrics, Jabberwocky, Scat Singing, Nonsense Verse and Glossolalia, Music, Excrement, 1960s, Screams, Grunts and Other Exclamations
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |