Jan
27
2012
Free Virtual Worlds For Tweens
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Alcatel 256 KB/S Href Modem 9029680100B $234.45 Alcatel 256 KB/S Href Modem 9029680100B |
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Virtual Worlds Handbook $43.95 The virtual worlds of gamers are being tapped by educators. Hodge (business and information technologies, East Carolina U.) explains how the popular free Second Life (SL) virtual world is being integrated into virtual classrooms and learning communities. |
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Researching Learning in Virtual Worlds $75.95 Researching Learning in Virtual Worlds |
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Teaching Literature in Virtual Worlds $128.25 Teaching Literature in Virtual Worlds |
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Making Virtual Worlds $18.71 Making Virtual Worlds |
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Worlds $13.58 Pianist Aaron Goldberg has an intriguing style that is a little reminiscent of Marian McPartland in its harmonic sophistication. Although seven of the ten selections on Worlds are his originals, several hint at various standards, most notably “Unstablemates,” a witty de-construction of Benny Golson’s “Stablemates.” The interplay between Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland is consistently inventive, and Luciana Souza adds her haunting voice to “Kianda’s Song.” However, the high point of this CD is “Oud to Omer,” which matches Goldberg with guest guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. The two musicians bring out the best in each other and plenty of sparks fly, making one hope that Goldberg and Rosenwinkel work together more often. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi Performers: Eric Harland – Drums; Kurt Rosenwinkel – Guitar; Luciana Souza – Vocals; Reuben Rogers – Bass |
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Virtual Justice: The New Laws of Online Worlds $33.99 Tens of millions of people today are living part of their life in a virtual world. In places like World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Free Realms, people are making friends, building communities, creating art, and making real money. Business is booming on the virtual frontier, as billions of dollars are paid in exchange for pixels on screens. But sometimes things go wrong. Virtual criminals defraud online communities in pursuit of real-world profits. People feel cheated when their avatars lose virtual property to wrongdoers. Increasingly, they turn to legal systems for solutions. But when your avatar has been robbed, what law is there to assist you? In "Virtual Justice, " Greg Lastowka illustrates the real legal dilemmas posed by virtual worlds. Presenting the most recent lawsuits and controversies, he explains how governments are responding to the chaos on the cyberspace frontier. After an engaging overview of the history and business models of today’s virtual worlds, he explores how laws of property, jurisdiction, crime, and copyright are being adapted to pave the path of virtual law. Virtual worlds are becoming more important to society with each passing year. This pioneering study will be an invaluable guide to scholars of online communities for years to come. |
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Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds $4.99 WeÂ’ve always dreamed of perfect places: Eden, heaven, Utopia. Imagine gambling without loss, love without heartbreak, sex without exposure, experience without risk. Welcome to the fascinating world of online virtual reality, the land of invented places and populations that is entered and inhabited every week by nearly fifty million people worldwide. Each participant creates a virtual body, works at virtual jobs, and makes virtual friends and family. In Second Lives, Tim Guest, an internationally acclaimed young journalist, takes us on a revelatory journey through the electronic looking glass as he investigates one of the most bizarre phenomena of the twenty-first century. From Second Life to EverQuest and beyond, here are the computer-generated environments and characters that can easily become more engrossing and fulfilling than earthly existence. With the click of a mouse you can select eye color, face shape, height – you can even give yourself wings. Your character, or avatar, can build houses, make and sell works of art, earn money, get married and divorced. In this fascinating and groundbreaking book, Guest meets people who found meaningful love and friendship despite never having met in person, catches up with the companies that have used virtual worlds to make big money, investigates the U.S. militaryÂ’s massive online global model that trains soldiers to fight anyone anywhere, and travels all the way to gaming-crazed Korea to get a taste for just how big this phenomenon really is. At first glance, these new computer-generated places seem free from trouble and sorrow. But Guest examines the dark side of this technology too, including the online criminals who plague imaginary worlds, from cyber mafiosos and prostitutes to real hackers and terrorists. It seems that one cannot escape greed, corruption, and human weakness – even inside a computer screen. Are these virtual worlds a way to enhance life or to escape it? Guest explores this question personally as he lets himself be transported into myriad parallel universes. By turns provocative, inspiring, and disturbing, Second Lives is a crucial book for this millennium. After all, real life is so twentieth century. |
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Modkid Kyoko Dress & Top Tweens Pattern $12.95 Click here for pattern back. |
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Design for Learning in Virtual Worlds $137.75 “Virtual worlds offer engaging, rich visual and auditory experiences to their users. In them, players guide computer-based avatars through virtual landscapes filled with realistic buildings, objects, characters, and the avatars of other players. In the co |
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The Virtual $44.35 This book looks at the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the virtual. Rob Shields shows how the construction of virtual worlds has a long history. He examines the many forms of faith and hysteria that have surrounded computer technologies in recent years. Moving beyond the technologies themselves he shows how the virtual plays a role in our daily lives at every level. The virtual is also an essential concept needed to manage innovation and risk. It is real but not actual, ideal but not abstract. The virtual, he argues, has become one of the key organizing principles of contemporary society in the public realms of politics, business and consumption as well as in our private lives. |
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Virtual Worlds and Criminality $111.55 The fusion between virtuality and reality has achieved a new quality of experience by the establishment of metaverses and virtual worlds, like Second Life, Twinity, Entropia Universe or Fregger have experienced rapid growth in recent years and show no signs of slowing down. Not only have countless companies discovered these virtureal worlds as marketplaces, but so have fraudsters and other criminals. To meet the new challenges arising from virtual worlds, the University of Heidelberg organized the symposium Virtual Worlds and Criminality . This conference brought together European experts from different academic disciplines. They discussed the reasons for and the impacts of these new forms of criminality as well as the necessities and possibilities for fighting these. Moreover, other fundamental issues were examined, such as the addictive potential of virtual-world use, media violence, and conflict resolution problems arising in the context of virtual worlds. |
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Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds $83.41 Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds |
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Law and Order in Virtual Worlds $171 “This book examines the legal realities which are emerging from Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) or virtual worlds that demonstrate many of the traits we associate with the Earth world: interpersonal relationships, economic transa |
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Designing Virtual Worlds $43.16 "Designing Virtual Worlds" is the most comprehensive treatment of virtual world design to-date from one of the true pioneers and most sought-after design consultants. It’s a tour de force of VW design, stunning in intellectual scope, spanning the literary, economic, sociological, psychological, physical, technological, and ethical underpinnings of design, while providing the reader with a deep, well-grounded understanding of VW design principles. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs. "Designing Virtual Worlds" brings a rich, well-developed approach to the design concepts behind virtual worlds. It is grounded in the earliest approaches to such designs, but the examples discussed in the book run the gamut from the earliest MUDs to the present-day MMORPG games mentioned above. It teaches the reader the actual, underlying design principles that many designers do not understand when they borrow or build from previous games. There is no other design book on the market in the area of online games and virtual worlds that provides the rich detail, historical context, and conceptual depth of Designing Virtual Worlds. |
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Two Worlds/Three Worlds $14.38 In the early 1960′s, Mescalero Apache musician, A. Paul Ortega created a sound that forever revolutionized the landscape of Native American music. A respected medicine man, he effortlessly fused Native American healing traditions with the gentle strum of guitar, the stomp of bass drum and the mournful cry of harmonica. With blues-tinged vocals and storytelling that draw upon Native culture, Two Worlds and Three Worlds have gone on to become modern classics of contemporary Native American musical expression. Performers: A. Paul Ortega – Tambourine, Vocals, Drums, Guitar (Acoustic); Little Johnny Truitt – Recorder, Flute; Michael Booth – Bass |
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Virtual Worlds on the Internet $9.98 In recent years, computer graphics has evolved into four major disciplines: computer animation, image processing, visualization, and virtual reality. Now these technologies are converging into one seamless digital medium resulting in various tools that will transform the way we work in the next century. Virtual Worlds on the Internet examines how the latest developments in virtual environments, computer animation, communication networks, and the Internet are being configured to create revolutionary tools and systems. Vince and Earnshaw have selected twenty papers they believe will influence computer systems of the twenty-first century. The topics discussed in this book include: * A toolkit for the development of virtual environment applications for education and research * Behavior descriptions used in expansive virtual environments. * Different uses of VRML in information system interfaces. * An examination of research in virtual reality environment interfaces. * Five approaches to supporting changes in virtual environments. * How ATM networks can support multi-user 3D virtual environments. * The transmission of vector graphics and animations over narrow-band transmission channels. * An exploration of an implicit modeling system including an interactive editor for building models. * A description of the advantages of 3D environments for shopping applications on the Internet. * The prototype of a software tool that automatically generates 3D models of virtual supermarkets. * A "VR Workbench" that displays strategic information viewable by a user groups. * An overview of a VR display system describing its workbench technology and its applications. * How to separate the functionality of a multi-user 3D modeling system into functional tools with interface specifications. |
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Virtual Jungle $9.58 It’s hard to know what to expect from a band called Virtual Jungle, but what Brazil-born, New York-based singer/songwriter Lucio Rebello offers is a bossa nova-influenced take on folktronica. Virtual Jungle is based primarily on acoustic guitars and drum machines, with other subtle arrangement touches like the extremely ’70s-sounding electric piano on the moody opening track “Traces,” and the vintage synth warbles that fade in and out of most of the songs. Rebello’s delicate singing voice is slightly overpowered on the harder-edged material, but much more effective when things quiet down; “Flying” offers a perfect example of this dichotomy, shifting into a Spanish-guitar-driven B section about halfway through that’s far superior to the first part of the song. (Rebello also sings in his native Portuguese on several tracks, including a second version of the English-language “Regret.”) At times, Virtual Jungle comes across as a one-man version of recent Saint Etienne, as on the danceable “How Far Would You Go (For Love?)” and the dreamy, jazzy ballad “Lost and Found.” For the most part, however, Rebello combines his influences into something fairly unique. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi Performers: Gustav Assis Brasil – Guitar; Mauricio Zottarelli – Drums |
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Virtual Leisure $14.38 This is the debut full-length release by Anat Ben-David, a video and performance artist working and living in London since 1999. She is a pioneer of the video-performance genre in Israel. Among Anat’s works are the “Hugo Boss Provocation” and “Popaganda Live.” Towards the end of her Fine Art studies at Goldsmiths College, Anat focused on the relationship between the fascist leader and the pop star as dominant performers in front of a desiring audience. Being a performance artist, she decided to take on the pop star role by joining electro punk rock act Chicks On Speed and collaborating with Peaches. For Anat, the most personal and original expression as an artist lies in a live performance — using body, voice and appearance. Live events could result in an art performance or a live gig that derives from punk performance and pop music. The essence is the live interaction with whoever is in front of her — viewers or camera. Besides her activity being a band member of Chicks On Speed, Anat Ben-David still focuses on her solo projects. After having worked as a painter, video and performance artist, it is now time to strengthen her enormous musical output which has always been part of her art. Virtual Leisure is nothing more than an exciting musical expedition through a lot of genres — interpreted by 100% Anat Ben-David. Like label colleague Planningtorock, Anat is deep into the classical orchestral string thing. Works of Franz Schubert and Mozart inspired the album, as well as Russian futurism and a Frederick Hollaender song originally performed by Marlene Dietrich. Mixing a wide range of musical styles, Virtual Leisure achieves an enigmatic result: never leaving the roots of female electro-punk and performance art, with every second as supercharged as if derived directly from a live show. Anat Ben-David creates something seldom and rare — an oeuvre of energetic classical electro-pop hymns. Performers: Alice Temple – Guitar |
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Learning Online With Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds $25.2 Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds Strategies for Online Instruction Clark Aldrich Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds The infusion of games, simulati |
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Strange Worlds $11.02 Strange Worlds is a double-disc set containing all 14 tracks recorded by Sun Ra & His Solar Myth Arkestra at New York’s Sun Studios in 1970 and 1971, and originally issued by BYG’s Actuel imprint in France. These sides have been reissued numerous times on both LP and CD as The Solar-Myth Approach in single volumes and in complete editions. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi Performers: Marshall Allen – Piccolo, Oboe, Sax (Alto), Flute; James Jacson – Oboe, Flute, Drums; Nimrod Hunt – Hand Drums; Ahk Tal Ebah – Mellophone, Trumpet; Ali Hassan – Trombone; Art Jenkins – Vocals; Charles Stevens – Trombone; Clifford Jarvis – Percussion; Danny Davis – Clarinet (Alto), Sax (Alto), Flute; Danny Thompson – Flute, Sax (Baritone); John Gilmore – Percussion, Sax (Tenor); June Tyson – Vocals; Kwame Hadi – Trumpet; Lex Humphries – Percussion; Pat Patrick – Flute, Sax (Baritone); Ronnie Boykins – Bass; Sun Ra – Moog Synthesizer, Clarinet, Piano |
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ActionScript for Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds $43 The demand for multiplayer games and virtual worlds has exploded over the last few years. Not only do companies want them for site stickiness through social networking, but developers have tremendous interest in exploring this niche area. While developing multiplayer content is challenging, it isn’t as difficult as you might think, and it is fun and highly rewarding ActionScript for Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds explains fundamental multiplayer concepts from connecting to a server to real-time latency hiding techniques. In this book you’ll learn: How to connect users to achieve real-time interactionWhen to make decisions on the server versus the game clientTime synchronization techniquesHow to use dead reckoning smoothing to hide network latencyAbout tile-based games the isometric viewTechniques for customizing and rendering avatars in a virtual world In addition, you’ll learn everything that goes into building: A real-time multiplayer tank battle gameA real-time multilayer cooperative gameA virtual world |
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Outer Worlds $15.18 The follow-up to 2004′s acclaimed debut, “Inner Worlds – Part One” that won him the title of “U-Magazine 2004 Ambient Artist Of The Year”. “Outer Worlds” is a compilation of live recordings performed between 2004 and 2006, featuring Michaels’ dreamlike “fourth dimensional” guitar playing framed in an atmospheric backdrop of sound. The unfolding music sparkles throughout during the completely improvised, 100% live performances. His guitar playing draws comparisons to some of the more ethereal works of legendary musicians like Robert Fripp (King Crimson) and Steve Howe (Yes). Performers: Jim Gully – Keyboards; John Melnick – Keyboards; Kurt Michaels – Guitar (Electric) |
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Worlds Away $7.94 Just like the name implies, Pablo Cruise glides like a warm breeze. Alongside other bands that blew out of the chrysalis of early light and easy radio, Pablo Cruise swayed natural and cool, evoking a rock unit transplanted in Bermuda, entertaining by the pool. “Love Will Find a Way” (probably no connection to the Yes song) grooves like Player in a Hawaiian shirt with a deep, dark tan. This stylish summer single effortlessly scaled to the top of the charts. Follow-up “Don’t Wanna Live Without It” is another crafty cocktail. Then Worlds Away hits adult contemporary cruise control until the whole crew packs up to “Go to Rio” (a perfect cover closer). Pablo Cruise adheres to corporate rock rules, and wrote groovy music for smooth sailing. ~ Doug Stone, Rovi Performers: Bruce Day – Vocals (Background), Bass, Vocals; Cory Lerios – Vocals (Background), Piano, Keyboards; David Jenkins – Vocals (Background), Guitar, Vocals, Bass; James Newton Howard – Synthesizer; Mike Porcaro – Bass; Stephen Price – Drums, Percussion; Steve Porcaro – Synthesizer; Steve Price – Drums, Percussion |
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Worlds [Evidence] $10.38 Listeners whose first exposure to Joe Lovano was his Blue Note output of the 1990s might assume that Quartets (recorded at New York’s famous Village Vanguard) was his first live album. But in fact, Worlds is a live recording that was made before Lovano signed with Blue Note and became a such a huge name in the jazz world. Recorded at the Amiens International Jazz Festival in France on May 5, 1989, Worlds finds the saxman leading a group that includes his wife, Judi Silvano, on vocals, Bill Frisell on guitar, Tim Hagans on trumpet, Gary Valente on trombone, Henri Texier on bass, and Paul Motian on drums. Lovano excels on the tenor and soprano saxes as well as the obscure alto clarinet, and Silvano’s adventurous improvisations demonstrate that she was already quite distinctive in 1989; nor are Frisell’s meaty solos anything to complain about. Nonetheless, this is hardly a performance that goes out of its way to be accessible — classical-influenced post-bop pieces like “Tafabalewa Square,” “Spirit of the Night,” and “Round Dance” are as angular as they are cerebral and abstract. But if the listener is willing to accept this uncompromising, challenging CD on its own terms, the rewards are abundant. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi Performers: Joe Lovano – Clarinet (Alto), Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor); Judi Silvano – Soprano (Vocal); Bill Frisell – Guitar; Bill Hagans – Guitar; Gary Valente – Trombone; Henri Texier – Bass; Paul Motian – Drums; Tim Hagans – Trumpet |
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Virtual $4.99 For everything you do, there’s a song that hits the spot. MOG brings them all to you: a world of music on demand, unlimited mobile downloads and ways to discover music free from the limitations of Pandora. The music you love, with you everywhere you go. |
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Two Worlds $14.38 Forging a unique creative relationship, Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin’s mutual professional history extends back some two decades. Ritenour was a core artist on Grusin’s label, GRP, throughout the 1980s and early ’90s; in 1986, they first collaborated on the Grammy Award winning Harlequin, a critically-acclaimed, Brazilian-themed recording. Ritenour also appeared on many of the pianist/composer’s film scores and solo recordings, and the two jammed together on GRP Super Live in 1987. Two Worlds, the classical-oriented labor of love that reunites the two legends, is more than simply a beautiful creative departure from their usual jazz-oriented projects. A blend of original compositions and respectful reworkings of timeless classics from Bach, Bartok, Villalobos, Mompov, and Segovia, the collection — which features stellar guest performances by opera star Renee Fleming, violinist Gil Shaham, and cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber — finds Ritenour and Grusin joyously reconnecting with their rich classical roots. Among the highlights are the lush, highly percussive Vivaldi/Bach piece “Bach Concerto, featuring a twenty-piece string section; “Bachianas Aria,” a piece from Brazilian composer Villalobos, provides a showcase for opera diva Renee Fleming. As for the original compositions, there’s the haunting, melodic “Elegia,” which Grusin composed many years ago for his late father, a violinist, featuring Gil Shaham; “Lagrima (Lee’s Prelude),” a graceful Ritenour original led by the classical guitar; “River’s Song,” Grusin’s clever medley adaptation of the folk songs “The Water Is Wide” and “Shenandoah,” featuring Fleming on vocals and “Canto,” an Italian-styled “winter song” which Grusin originally wrote for a Ritenour project in the late ’70s. Timeless yet contemporary, Two Worlds is beautiful reunion of these musical soul mates. ~ Jonathan Widran, Rovi Performers: Cecilia Tsan – Celli; Christina Soule – Celli; Paula Hochhalter – Celli; Renée Fleming – Soprano; Stephen Erdody – Celli; Carole Castillo – Viola; Carrie Holzman-Little – Viola; Jennie Hansen – Viola; Julian Lloyd Webber – Cello; Keith Green – Viola; |
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Light of Worlds $7.94 Performers: Ed Pazant – Oboe, Sax (Alto); Kenneth Banks – Vocals (Background); Richard Shade – Vocals (Background); Robert “Spike” Mickens – Flugelhorn, Trumpet; Al Pazant – Trumpet; Alton Taylor – Vocals; Claydes E.X. Smith – Vibraphone, Guitar, Percussion; Dennis “D.T.” Thomas – Sax (Alto); |
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Worlds Apart $13.58 A grungy-looking quartet of punkers (check out the photos on the back cover of this album), Subhumans were a radical British punk group in the vein of the Clash and Conflict, though their sound was different in a couple of ways than both those acts. Like the Clash, Subhumans experimented with ska and reggae beats, but Subhumans’ music was a bit more simplistic and their themes almost always straightforward. On Worlds Apart, Subhumans sing about “Apathy,” “Businessmen,” and “Heads of State,” all objects of scorn for them. These weren’t exactly risky targets to attack in the context of ’80s British punk rock. Later, in the band Citizen Fish, who included a few members of Subhumans, singer/songwriter Dick refined his lyrics and wrote more thoughtful diatribes. But Subhumans were always pretty basic. Still, the music on Worlds Apart is relatively varied, heavy on the reverb, and it contains more than enough hooks. This is one of Subhumans’ best efforts, but most of their music sounds more dated than other bands from that era. ~ Adam Bregman, Rovi Performers: Bruce – Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals; Dick & Dee Dee – Vocals; Gary Pihl – Guitar (Acoustic); Trotsky – Drums |
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Worlds Collide $14.39 Originally four cellists, now three cellists and a drummer, Finnish quartet Apocalyptica have worked hard to become more than a mere covers band since their 1996 debut, Apocalyptica Plays Metallica by Four Cellos. Their early material established them as astute interpreters of the thrash metal genre, finding a gold mine in the tension between their subject metal and their instruments of choice, but as their reputation grew they sought to become full-fledged members of the heavy metal community. By the time of 2007′s Worlds Collide, Apocalyptica had completed the transition from chamber room instrumentals to pulsating neoclassical metal, a feat amazingly achieved without the use of conventional guitars. With drummer Mikko Sirén in tow, the three founding members play distorted cello in the style of Slayer and Metallica, alternating bass picking, distorted riffing, and clean melodic lines with or without a collaborating vocalist. The one spot on Apocalyptica’s record to date has been the distinct lack of a great album to complement a catalog of musical accomplishments, but Worlds Collide is very much the antidote to that problem. Driven by the slick modern rock single “I’m Not Jesus,” sung by Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, the album expertly bridges the gap between accessibility and the group’s more progressive instincts. Atmospheric opener “Worlds Collide” is as succinct a summary of Apocalyptica’s musical style as can be, literally and sonically, contrasting sections of polite melodicism and bone-shaking thrash. The album’s coup de grâce is its one piece of non-original material: “Helden” is a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” auf Deutsch, with Rammstein’s Till Lindemann handling lead vocals, and the cellists’ rendering of the main theme is so seamless, so perfect, that it’s hard to remember just how much differently the original was handled. ~ Dave Donnelly, Rovi Performers: Mats Levén – Vocals (Background); Corey Taylor – Vocals; Cristina Scabbia – Vocals; Dave Lombardo – Drums; Howard Benson – Korg Synthesizer, Sequencing, Farfisa Organ, Organ (Hammond), Fender Rhodes, Vocals, Keyboards, Piano, Synthesizer; Paul Bushnell – Bass; Phil X. – Guitar; Till Lindemann – Vocals |
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Tweens Pop Hits $4.99 For everything you do, there’s a song that hits the spot. MOG brings them all to you: a world of music on demand, unlimited mobile downloads and ways to discover music free from the limitations of Pandora. The music you love, with you everywhere you go. |
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Small Worlds $12.78 Performers: Kathy Crow – Vocal Harmony, Harmony Vocals, Vocals; Colin Petersen – Drums; Joe Pagetta – Vocal Harmony, Harmonica, Harmony Vocals, Tambourine, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals, Guitar (Electric) |
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Little Worlds $23.98 Super-jazz freakout bluegrass picker Béla Fleck’s broad three-CD concept album has ambitious intentions, but ultimately ends up feeling a bit scattered. The idea seems to have been to record an album that sounds like sitting in a car and flipping through radio stations — hearing snippets of hip-hop, Chinese opera, Irish folk, Hawaiian ukulele, mid-’80s funk, and, of course, bluegrass and jazz, then expanding that experience out to three entire discs. If any group on the planet could pull this off, it could only be Fleck and his Flecktones, but the concept (being as convoluted as it is) makes for a rather uneven listen. The bright and jazzy “Puffy” neatly bridges the gap between contemporary jazz and new acoustic music, and tabla, Irish harp, and even theremin meld nicely on the genre-spanning “Sleeper.” On the flip side, the bizarro hip-hop version of Flatt & Scruggs’ “Ballad of Jed Clampett” never needed to be recorded, and many of the songs seem cluttered and over-tweaked, almost as if during production the band reasoned that the addition of more instruments and more synthesized sounds could only enhance the music. The addition of nearly everyone they knew — including Bobby McFerrin, several of the Chieftains, Nickel Creek, and even the lady from the Chinese restaurant down the street — only adds to the confusion.It seems as though Fleck will never run out of ideas, and taken one at a time, the majority of the songs have obvious merit, but as each of the songs drift from centuries-old Indian percussion into one of Future Man’s synth-axe drumitar jams, it sounds a little too disjointed and almost “quirky for quirky’s sake.” “Say, what if we mixed digeridoo with an electric synth banjo?” “Well, OK…but only as long as I can have a gong solo!” Sorry fellas, but just because the instruments exist doesn’t mean they all need to show up in the same song. Still, every note is impeccably played and pristinely recorded, and those Flecktones fans who like to pull apart their extremely technical pieces of music, analyze them, and put them back together will find hours of rabid discussion on Little Worlds. [Sony also released a stripped-down, ten-song version of the project called Ten From Little Worlds.] ~ Zac Johnson, Rovi Performers: Derek Bell – Irish Harp; Ganesh Chandram – Kanjira; Ganesh Kumar – Kanjira; Subasch Chandram – Jaw Harp, Gatam, Vocals; Future Man – Synthaxe, Cajon, Gong, Cymbals, Vocals, Drums; Jake Shimabukuro – Ukulele; |
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The War of the Worlds $16.79 Released 40 years after Orson Welles’ infamous radio version of the H.G. Wells tale, Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds straddles old-style radio drama and contemporary orchestrated narratives by Rick Wakeman and David Bedford. And while it lacks the sophisticated arrangements of, say, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, it does boast an impressively odd cast — this may be the only time that a member of Thin Lizzy worked with Richard Burton, and the presence of Julie Covington and the Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward in very attractive singing roles attest to its pop/rock aspirations. It’s Burton’s sonorous tones that sustain this work; his frequent solo narrations are eminently listenable, whereas sections featuring dialogue with other characters often come off as a bit stilted. The music is competent studio rock, and “Horsell Common and the Heat Ray” does strike just the right balance between Burton’s narration and an accompaniment built around a buzzsaw guitar riff. Overall, it’s pleasant as a period piece, and still a fine way to introduce younger listeners to Wells’ classic tale. (And if you can find it in a vinyl, it comes with a nicely produced narrative booklet with gloriously lurid illustrations by Geoff Taylor.) The album was actually appealing on too many fronts for its own good in many ways — the Justin Hayward-sung ballad “Forever Autumn,” extracted from a much longer piece on the double-LP — showed some signs of appealing to AM radio listeners and climbed to the Top 40 based on airplay alone, but by the time Columbia Records in America (missing this boat entirely) got copies of the single into stores so that people could actually buy the record, the song had dropped back down; in the meantime, the record became a favorite of discos and dance clubs in New York and elsewhere, where its extended, highly rhythmic, synthesizer-driven sections delighted deejays and audiences, and Columbia missed another bet by not releasing an instrumental-only assembly of those long passages. (In New York, for years after it went out of print on vinyl, the album was sought after by club deejays eager to spin it). ~ Paul Collins and Bruce Eder, Rovi Performers: George Fenton – Santur, Taragat, Zither; Laurence Diana – Scratching; Billy Lawrie – Vocals (Background); Gary Osborne – Vocals (Background); Jerry Wayne – Voices; Paul Vigrass – Vocals (Background); PeSt – Sound Effects; |
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Worlds Within $15.98 The multi-instrumentalist who calls himself Govinda was born Shane O’Madden, and his primary instrument is the violin. Under normal circumstances you might expect his music to draw on Celtic traditions, but Worlds Within is actually a dark, slinky exploration of gypsy, Indian, and Middle Eastern textures and modalities, all wrapped up in percolating breakbeats and dubwise production techniques. At times the music threatens to get mushy, but numerous guest vocalists help prevent the proceedings from dissolving into generic electro-worldbeat pablum: Juliana Sheffield contributes gorgeous Elizabeth Fraser-like crooning on “Los Golondrinas,” creating something that sounds like a fusion of Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd; “10,000 Years” rolls along nicely on an ethereal funk beat, helped out by dancehall chatting courtesy of an unidentified DJ; on “Something,” Kayt Jourdanson lets her cool, laid-back voice be used as raw material to be shredded like silk and wafted along on a Hindustani-inflected modal groove. Very highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson, Rovi Performers: Sandrine Ligabue – Vocals |
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Tweens $11.96 This book is in New – Excellent condition |
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The Tweens $4.99 We believe it is important to preserve what makes music special, and make it easy to craft listening experiences. At MOG, browse millions songs and play them instantly. Or just turn on radio where you can stop and replay songs. You can also create playlists for any occasion, and even download songs to your mobile. We are dedicated to employing the cleanest but most powerful technology so you can enjoy music as much as ever. |
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New Worlds $10.37 The Knights are an orchestra not affiliated with a city or an institution of learning such as a university, and they are committed to taking orchestral music out of the concert hall and directly to the people through playing non-traditional venues such as New York City’s landmark restaurant Le Poisson Rouge. Sony’s disc New Worlds was inspired by a program prepared by the Knights for the annual Dresden Music Festival, which chose as its theme the concept of “New Worlds” for its 2009 edition. These recordings, however, were made in Sony’s Legacy Studios in New York and not at the festival itself, and for the better, as they have a great sense of presence while maintaining orchestral depth. This works very well for the splendid version of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question included; for once, listeners are not straining to hear the string chorus and having the foreground elements smack them in the face, but all is well-balanced. Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas is a spicy and effervescently rhythmic confection that utilizes “new music” techniques in a wry and humorous fashion, whereas Dvorák’s Silent Woods is indeed woody, wide, and fully achieved in a standard romantic idiom, perhaps the ultimate test of the mettle of a new century orchestra; how well can than they do standard, 19th century fare? If you’re the Knights and cello soloist Jan Vogler, about as well as the Czech Philharmonic does Dvorák. The Golijov is both bristling with energy and tension and played with precision; well done, especially when one considers the rather complex rhythmic profile of the piece. Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring closes out the show, and the Knights’ — and conductor Eric Jacobsen’s — attentiveness to detail pays off in the Copland, which for some established orchestras can sound like a tired old warhorse. That said, it doesn’t quite crackle with the electricity encountered in older recordings by Antal Dorati or Copland himself, but the Knights’ reading is fresher than many to most interpretations of this very commonly recorded piece. Listen up, orchestras of the classical establishment: here is your competition. In order to keep pace with what the Knights can offer in lithe limberness and immediacy, the big concert orchestras might need to put in some time at the gymnasium; suffice it is to say that New Worlds is a refreshing change over usual orchestral fare. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis , Rovi Performers: Jan Vogler – Cello |
