1900

1900

First zeppelin takes to the skies in Germany.

President McKinley places Alaska under military law. We rule the wastes with an iron fist!

Ada Williams, a London "baby farmer", hanged in Newgate Prison.

Boxer Rebellion!

Cuntrag and professional killjoy Carrie Nation demolishes 25 saloons in Kansas.

King Umberto of Italy assassinated (on my birthday!) by an Italian-American anarchist terrorist.

born: Luis Buñuel, Spencer Tracy, Aaron Copland

died: Oscar Wilde, Nietszche

Claude Debussy - Les Chansons de Bilitis

Rachmaninov - Concerto for Piano & Orchestra #2 in C minor, op. 18

The Bloop

Thanks to my pal Mordicai and the glories of our parallel addiction to Wikipedia, I now have a new mystery to ponder: the Bloop. In 1997, the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Autonomous Hydrophone Array, which "uses U.S. Navy equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines", detected the repeated presence of an ultra-low-frequency sound matching the profile of a living creature, but indicating a creature that would have been much, much larger than a blue whale.

"To date there has been no explanation as to what produced the sound."

The Bloop, sped up 16x. (WAV file, 161kb)

Frankly, it's not really much to listen to. Not as good as the numbers stations, at least. Just one of those fascinating internet things I like to have pop up on my iPod shuffle now and then.

also:

Bloopwatch.com!

1898

1898

U.S. declares war on Spain on April 25. Later, they retcon this date to April 20. Teddy Roosevelt begins 299-day streak of kicking ass.

U.S. annexes Hawaii.

First automobile fatality.

Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary assassinated by Italian anarchist.

Neon discovered.

born: Preston Sturges, Sergei Eisenstein, Bertolt Brecht, George Gershwin, C.S. Lewis.

died: Lewis Carroll.

Charles Ives - Symphony #1

Next stop, 20th century! (I ain't got nothin' for 1899.)

1897

1897

The Great Consolidation! The City of Brooklyn becomes part of New York City. Obsolete buildings like the one above--the City of Brooklyn's Fire Department Headquarters--are repurposed. (That is now retail space.)

The murder trial of Elva Zona Heaster becomes (probably) the only criminal case in United States history to use testimony from a ghost to secure a conviction.

British Punitive Expedition burns the City of Benin to the ground.

Arctic Balloon Expedition! Everyone dies.

The Boston subway, the USA's first underground metro, opens.

First use of the word "computer" to mean an electronic calculation device.

born: William Faulkner, Douglas Sirk, Sidney Bechet, Frank Capra, Moe Howard.

died: Johannes Brahms

Claude Debussy - Trois Nocturnes

Live and Direct Part II

David Murray with the Gwo-Ka Masters

More live goodness. I don't have as much info about these tracks as I did for the ones from Vol. 1. A lot of them I just accumulated the way one does when you spend most of your day on the internet.

Fordmadoxfraud's Live and (Mostly) Bootleg Mixtape, Vol. 2

TRACKLIST
1. Buddy Holly - Love is Strange
demo version
2. Iggy Pop - The Passenger
3. Frank Sinatra & Ella Fitzgerald - The Lady is a Tramp
live on Sinatra: A Man and His Music tv special, 1967
4. Sam & Dave - Soothe Me
live 1967
5. PJ Harvey - The Dancer
live 4/23/05
6. Jimi Hendrix - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band
7. David Murray & the Gwo-Ka Masters - Gete
live in Switzerland, 8/20/03. This song kicks ass. Thanks to my pal Pangborn for ripping it for me.
8. Shane MacGowan & Christy Moore - Spancill Hill
and this I have to thank my pal Rich for. This is one of my favorite live Shaney songs.
9. Johnny Cash - Unchained
live at Irving Plaza, NYC, 7/9/96
10. John Zorn's Masada with Susie Ibarra and Bill Frisell - unknown song
live at the Knitting Factory, NYC, 4/10/96
11. Killing Joke - Sun Goes Down
12. Radiohead - Wonderwall
not serious
13. Desmond Dekker - 007 (Shanty Town) w/ versions
14. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
rehearsal tape, 1967
15. Fear - New York's Alright (If You Like Saxophones)
live on Saturday Night Live, Halloween, 1981
16. Bob Dylan - Sloppy Drunk
B.B. King cover, live at the Royal Festival Hall, London, 1964

1896

1896

Wilhelm Röntgen discovers x-rays.

Battle of Adowa! Ethiopia kicks the crap out of Italy once and for all.

born: Howard Hawks, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Andre Breton, George Burns.

died: Harriet Beacher Stowe, Anton Bruckner.

Antonín Dvořák - The Water Goblin, op. 107

1894

1894

Royal Greenwich Observatory almost destroyed by French anarchist with a bomb.

Big year for France: Dahomey colonized. Unrelatedly, Sadi Carnot, president of France, is assassinated by an Italian anarchist. South France battered by meteor shower.

Alfred Dreyfus arrested for spying. The Dreyfus Affair begins.

Grace Kimmins establishes the hilariously named Guild of the Poor Brave Things, for disabled boys.

born: Dashiell Hammett, Nikita Khrushchev, Jack Benny, Normal Rockwell, Bessie Smith, Céline, Joseph Roth, e e cummings.

died: Robert Louis Stevenson, Adolphe Sax (inventor of the saxophone).

Claude Debussy - Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune