+ bone music

photos by Jozsef Hajdu and words by Christopher Jobson on December 30 from colossal.com

If you asked me when the history of bootleg music began, I would have assumed it arrived with the invention of the cassette tape, something small, inexpensive and portable that was easily duplicated in any garage from deck A to deck B. In reality, widespread bootlegging dates back even further, to the 1950s in the Soviet Union where music lovers, desperate for banned Western tunes, devised an ingenious way to print their own records. The only problem was the scarcity of vinyl.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. With the aid of a special device, people started pressing banned jazz and rock n’ roll music on thick radiographs scavenged from the dumpsters of hospitals. X-rays were plentiful (not to mention cheap), and while the records could only be pressed on a single side, the music they produced using a standard turntable was passable. The recordings even had a catchy name: bone music. From an interview with author Anya von Bremzen via NPR:

“They would cut the X-ray into a crude circle with manicure scissors and use a cigarette to burn a hole. You’d have Elvis on the lungs, Duke Ellington on Aunt Masha’s brain scan—forbidden Western music captured on the interiors of Soviet citizens.”

By 1958 the authorities caught on and the act of making x-ray records was made illegal. It wasn’t long before the largest distribution networks of illicit bone music were discovered and shut down. You can see more scans of bone music over on this page created by Jozsef Hajdu, and FastCo has a great article about the entire phenomenon. (via Junk Culture, NPR, FastCo)

+ Nevalyashka Dolls

Most of us are familiar with the Soviet classic Matroshka, but what about Nevalyashka, the first toy for millions of Russian children in the early 1900's.  The doll was inspired by the Japanese Daruma doll, which was a Zen good luck statue made to resemble the Bodhidharma Buddhist Monk. 

+

Built in 1817, this wooden steed was invented by Karl Drais in Baden, Germany. He called it a laufmaschine, or running machine, but it quickly became known as the draisine. Barely a year later, the draisine was a smash in the States, to the point where special rinks were built.

http://www.adventure-journal.com/2012/06/the-daily-bike-june-18-2012/

+ Ivy Baldwin and Eldorado Canyon

A Charmed Life – by Adele Lam

A Colorado pioneer, Ivy Baldwin, was well known for his acrobatic feats.

Ivy Baldwin, at the age of 12, ran away with the visiting circus. It was there that he learned wire-walking as well as balloonist skills.

Born Will Ivy in Houston, Texas in 1866, he later adopted the name of Ivy Baldwin as a circus acrobat.

In 1890, John Elitch brought Ivy to Denver where he performed balloon ascensions and parachute drops at Elitch Gardens. He loved Colorado and became a life-long resident.

At 41, Ivy made his first crossing over South Boulder Canyon at Eldorado Springs. He made a total of 87 crossings over the canyon, the last on his 82nd birthday.



As a balloonist in the Spanish-American War, Ivy Baldwin was a member of the Signal Corps and did reconnaissance for the American Army. With the advent of the airplane, he became a specialist in parachute jumping and made more than 2,800 jumps from balloons and airplanes.

His various stunts took him around the world. He once performed for the Emperor of Japan who had a silk kimono made for Ivy with pictures of him and his wire act embroidered down the front.




Ivy Baldwin was small in stature, barely weight 100 pounds and 5'3" in height. His slight figure belied his courage and adventurous spirit. He never wanted to quit. When Baldwin walked the high wire he used ordinary cloth shoes with resin soles. He balanced himself with a 26-foot pole weighing 10 pounds with each end capped with a 1 pound knob.

His most dangerous walk took place in San Francisco in 1885, when he walked a wire stretched over the Pacific Ocean from Cliff House to Seal Rocks with a pounding surf below.

Ivy Baldwin died peacefully in bed at the age 87 at his son's home in Arvada, Colorado in 1953.

In 1974, the high wire at Eldorado Springs was taken down so as not to tempt adventurous youth.

http://boulderhistory.org/baldwin.asp
http://www.stereoviews.com/colorado3.html

+ the first tour

‘The first Tour de France was staged in 1903. The eventual winner was Maurice Garin.’

+ the first typewriter

+ calibrators

Spindle tools used to calibrate organ pipes (19th century) - W.J.Bird.
Photo by Adriano Brusaferri.

live long and prosper

vulcan facts:
their salute was not made up by 1960's hollywood but from an ancient hebrew priestly blessing. i included a picture from Wiki from a rabbis tomb.

+they are vegetarians (me too!)
+they are desert people (i love the desert)
+they are 3 times stronger than earthling humanoids because of differences in planetary atmosphere.
+they helped eliminate poverty on earth after WW3.

halloween was very fun this year!
<3

Japanese man from the Meiji era

Ani – Ghost City of 1001 Churches

visit this site for a mystical history and tons more pictures.
Posted by RJ Evans
http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/01/ani-ghost-city-of-1001-churches.html
photos credited on link above