Xylophones! international cows! and a peek into a musical alternate universe.

• Photographer Tom Calton uses a genuine 108-year-old World War 1 camera lens on a modern digital camera. This is interesting partly for the history, but also for the uncanny-valley effect that comes from seeing pictures and video that have lens characteristics from a century ago, but the clarity of modern digital pictures.
   
• There are lots of videos out there which demonstrate polyrhythms: the fascinating musical and sound effects you get when you have several instruments at almost the same tempo. But I've never seen one where those instruments are performed by an actual human: here Jeremie Carrier produces a 15-note poly-tempo pendulum, and it's hypnotising! This must have been painstaking work.
   
• In 1986, "kamepo" took a camera on a trip on Tokyo's Shuto Expressway. In 2023, they did the same thing: and then speed-matched the two videos for an incredible split-screen comparison YouTube video. Originally I thought this was just someone reusing other people's footage, but no: after looking at the first link, I kept researching, and if the automated translation tools I used are right, then kamepo filmed all this, back in the 80s and now! There are many other similar videos on their channel, including this one from the Las Vegas strip in 1993, including radio adverts from the time! And they have a whole series talking about the cameras and rigs they used, including footage from back then. I can't say I've watched through much of this yet, but this is going to be a fascinating treasure-trove of information for certain types of infrastructure nerd.
   

• I did not know that the Space Shuttle had a very large and very heavy teleprinter onboard!
   
• A self-proclaimed "enormous road sign nerd" rates the cows on European road signs. Poland, your sign designer made some interesting choices.
   
• The song "Murder on the Dancefloor" has had a resurgence lately. I didn't know that it was written by one of the New Radicals, let alone nearly their first single... and then I heard this newly-released snippet of the original demo (mild drug references). The New Radicals disbanded after their first single was released, so this sounds less like a clip from a cover version and more like a brief peek into some sort of musical alternate universe.
   

And finally: I've mentioned Australian radio station triple j's "Like A Version" before, but I still have to link to this: an incredible cover of Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" by G Flip, that I think surpasses the original by a lot. But then, I do like a string section. And I did not expect the instrument change during the middle eight. 

All the best,

— Tom