This track is called 'Observatory Hill Dub'. It is based on Augustus Pablo's 'Up Warrika Hill' - can you tell that Augustus Pablo is my favourite dub artist no? The mix and possibly the arrangement in this track are not complete, it's only a rough mix for the time being, and I'm still working on the arrangement (if you've got any advice or feedback - even 'you suck' - please dump it in the comments of this blog entry). I originally put the skeleton down for this track some months ago when I did a whole batch of reggae rhythms for my use later. More of these tracks will appear over the (southern) summer months January - February. I have been steadily learning as many dub/reggae basslines from the 'classic riddums' as they say, and recording them or transcribing to keyboard parts.

Thanks to Simon Brown's excellent Pebble 1.6.1 Blogging Software, 'My cummerbund fell in the toilet' now supports the RSS 2.0 enclosure tag, which I will be using to podcast new original music from Victor X-Ray, and maybe some historical pieces as well. Mainly, the podcasts will be in the Victor X-Ray Audio System category.

If you want to know more about podcasting, I suggest you visit ipodder.org or visit the podcasting group at yahoo. Point your iPodder or equivalent software at the following feed URL: http://modular.autonomous.org/pebble/scotartt/rss.xml, and it will automatically download any new Victor X-Ray material that I place on the site, ready for you to listen to when you get up in the morning (or whenever).

As a test I have attached the track 'Radiation Yes Indeed' that's included on the Clan Analogue compilation 'Doppler Shift'. Big girly chorused vocals and piano over a old-school bassline and a classic rant about the neutron bomb. Music copyright Victor Xray 2004, used with permission. Commercial distribution prohibited.

If you don't have podcast client software installed you can just click on the 'attachment' link at the bottom right of this entry. If you are reading this from a news aggregator of some type that doesn't support enclosures, visit the blog entry to get the link.

Housesitting here in Bondi, Lisa is reading The Andy Warhol Diaries. One of the things that strikes about this heavy tome, is the simularity between its style and Bret Easton Ellis's book Glamorama. Interestingly here I found an interview by Casey McKinney with Easton Ellis that also mentions (in part 3) this very similarity. Easton Ellis says that this influence was more apparent with Less Than Zero than Glamorama. I think though that Glamorama stands out more both for the similarity of style and subject matter:

Warhol Diaries, p49, "Tuesday June 7, 1977";

Dennis Hopper and Catherine Milinaire and Terry Southern and a photographer from Time came by. Her job was to follow Dennis around, and he wanted to come to the Factory and have her follow her there. There was just an article in Time or Newsweek on the Apocalypse Now movie that Coppola is finishing. Dennis is playing a crazed hippy photographer in it. The photographer from Time took pictures of Catherine taking pictures of Dennis taking pictures of me taking pictures of Dennis. Dennis Hopper came and was watching me photograph the nude boy, but Victor didn't know who Dennis was and threw him out.

Warhol Diaries, p49 "Thursday June 9, 1977";

Got to the St Regis at 11.30 for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League testimonial to Elizabeth Taylor. Liz and Halston weren't there yet. I met the president of Cartier. Eugenia Sheppard was there. Hermione Gingold was there. A woman who didn't even have to say she was Bob Feiden's mother came to me and said that, because she looked just like Bob Feiden but with jewelry. John Springer and Liz and Halston arrived. There were two or three Liz lookalikes there, one introduced herself to Liz. I was next to Mary Beame, the wife of Mayor Abe Beame. There were a few anti-defamation people on the dias, and Hal Prince and Mike Todd, jnr. Liv Ullmann lead the prayer, and Dianne Von Furstenberg was there. Livia Weintraub who was good-looking gave a speech about being in a concentration camp, and she ended it a plug with her new perfume, "Livia". ...

Glamorama, p6;

The "reporter" from Details stands with us. Assignment: follow me around for a week. Headline: THE MAKING OF A CLUB. Girl: push-up bra, scads of eyeliner, a Soviet sailor's cap, plastic flower jewelry, rolled up copy of W tucked under a pale, worked-out arm. Uma Thurman if Uma Thurman was five feet two and asleep. Behind her, some guy wearing a Velcro vest over a rugby shirt and a leather windjammer follows us, camcording the scene.

James Wolcott also has a series of Andy Warhol Diaries quotes from Christmas Day.

From The Sydney Morning Herald (via Los Angeles Times, Agence France-Presse):

Also in Aceh, 10 Western tourists were found relatively unscathed on Weh island, 25 kilometres off Sumatra. It was one of the closest points to the epicentre.

In Britain The Sun said a 10-year-old, Tilly, holidaying with her family on Phuket's Maikhao Beach, saved hundreds when she grasped what was happening thanks to a lesson on tsunamis in the last term of school and alerted her mother.

"Last term Mr Kearney taught us about earthquakes and how they can cause tsunamis," Tilly was quoted as saying.

"I was on the beach and the water started to go funny. There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden.

"I recognised what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami," she is quoted as saying. "I told mummy."

She had raised an alert that prompted the evacuation of the beach and a hotel before the water crashed in, saving hundreds of people from death and injury.