Firsts The first modern Olympic Games takes place, Blackpool Pleasure Beach opens, X-rays are discovered, La bohème premiers, Henry Ford builds The Ford Quadricycle, his first vehicle, there is the world’s first motoring fatality, the first speeding fine and the first study of the sensitivity of global climate to atmospheric carbon dioxide. American Politics William …
MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack In a tiny, bare-walled back room a man sings into a huge metal horn. The sound causes vibrations in the air, which travel down the horn, compressing into a smaller point, causing a diaphragm to vibrate. The diaphragm pushes a metal stylus, …
Sir Frederic Leighton – Flaming June George William Joy – The Bayswater Omnibus Edvard Munch – Madonna Thomas Eakins — Portrait of Maud Cook Paul Cézanne – The Basket of Apples Valentin Serov — Portrait of Countess Varvara Musina-Pushkina Aubrey Beardsley — Venus Between Terminal Gods Edgar Degas – After the Bath, Woman drying herself …
L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat Annabelle Serpentine Dance Repas de bébé Barque sortant du port Akrobatisches Potpourri La Charcuterie mécanique Démolition d’un mur The Derby L’Arroseur Arrosé Cordeliers’ Square in Lyon The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
If obsessively uncovering secrets through ancient sound is our job here, then this is very much on-topic. It’s not exactly an obscure occult text, but The Lost Stradivarius is a great ghost story anyway, Falkner pitching it at a sweet spot somewhere between The Great God Pan and the works of M. R. James. It’s …
Just a note to say that the ‘about’ page has been comprehensively updated, with lists of sources to follow.
Looking back at people looking forward never fails to fascinate – in order to judge predictions, of course, but also because of what these stories tell us about the cutting edge of thought and values at the time. On the whole The Time Machine works well from this sort of perspective, the predictions are far …
Is there anyone out there who is unaware of The Importance of Being Earnest? If so then hello! The Importance of Being Earnest is Oscar Wilde’s final, most well-known play – like his earlier comedies it is largely concerned with switched identities, sparring witticisms, and situations deliberated convoluted for comic effect. It’s still wonderful and …
If you were surprised to find that Thomas Edison reciting “Mary Had A Little Lamb” wasn’t the first thing in the first mix, you may also recollect that sound film started in 1927 with The Jazz Singer. But here we are 32 years earlier, and what do you know, here’s the first example of someone …
Seventeen Seconds in New Jersey – The Premature Birth of Sound Film Read More »
Over at Mashable, scans of a 1895 photo manual which teaches what you should do if you’re attacked by Houdini.
