Zounds's RECommendations

Released almost 2 years ago

	Quotidian as balloons seem today, it is difficult to believe that, throughout much of history, they were regarded as myth. Certainly, ancient cultures were aware of the existence of balloons. The Aztecs counted in their pantheon Quitaxtalao, portrayed as a monstrous figure with clothing of human bones, the claws of an alligator and a menacing balloon head. A small but exquisite set of Grecian vases depicts the messenger goddess Iris floating on a pillow of balloons. Balloons were feared even into Medieval times; it was widely believed that the balloon was a harbinger of the apocalypse, and would trail behind sinners, guiding the scythe to them. Remarkably, the first documented sighting of a balloon in the wild came with Darwin’s voyage to the Galapagos. More recently, “balloon graveyards” have offered clues to the strange dis- and re- appearance of balloons. In these cases, withering balloons gravitated towards each other, as if for comfort, and, so huddled, were petrified. These bizarre but poignant grave sites suggest a catastrophic event around the year 700 BC. While many scientists have dedicated their lives to understanding this near-extinction, we may never know what caused the vast majority of balloons to perish and preserved the select few on the Galapagos, which would thrive and undergo evolutionary divergence to create the many subspecies so familiar today. After Darwin’s find, balloons rocketed to the forefront of the collective imagination. Soon, it was not enough to see a balloon at the zoo- every child (and indeed, many adults) wanted one for his own. The most unfortunate outgrowth of this rash of balloonaphilia was, of course, the zeppelin. For a time, balloons were bred larger and larger, and their graceful bodies swam serenely through our skies. But although gentle, the zeppelin was simply too big for the modern world, and the countless zeppelin-related tragedies led finally to a strict zeppelin crack down. Now zeppelins can only be seen in captivity. Zeppelins aside, however, balloons have taken quite wonderfully to domestication. What would the modern world be without the cheerful malleability of the balloon animal? The brief, vibrant life of the helium balloon, companion to many a child? The hot air balloon which, deflated, inflates again, phoenix-like, to serene grandeur. Truly, we are blessed that, through Darwin’s discovery, balloons have re-entered the world.

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Fake Histories: The Balance Beam

by themetafictionist

Released almost 2 years ago

	Like most modern day sports, the origin of the balance beam began with pirates. During the late 18th century, it became popular for pillaging pirates to punish their captives by having them "walk the plank." The plank was a narrow, wooden board that extended over the ocean. Initially, victims would walk off of the plank with their hands bound and weights strapped to their ankles. After awhile, the pirates became bored with this method and began looking for more entertaining torture techniques. It was Black Jack Sculley - a seafaring rogue aboard the most infamous of pirate ships, the Iron Cross - who first suggested that the victims be forced to perform for their lives. "Arrrrrrgh, if ye be dancin' on the plank, ye may find yer salvation. ARRRRRGH!" (Lewis, Pirates of the Past, Modern Olympians, p. 56) From then on, victims were forced to perform dance skills as they walked down the plank. The pirates would gather around the sides of the ship to watch and engaged in lively discussions about the quality of the victim's balancing skills. They spared the lives of those prisoners who showed the most daring and creative routines. Some routines were so impressive that detailed records of the skills were kept. Eventually, a scoring system was developed, and pirate ships would meet at secret locations to hold plank walking competitions. Captain John Boneknuckle wrote in his diary about how a "resounding cry of delight arose from the galley of scalleywags" after one prisoner performed a full-twisting Albatross loop. The prisoner was granted a pardon and was set free upon arrival at the next port town. However, most prisoners were not so lucky. Many fell into the brimey sea after losing their footing or were struck by a stray bullet from the fights that would break out amongst the pirates during judging. As the years went on, pirating fell out of vogue, but the spectacle of plank walking remained. Indeed, plank walking debuted at the very first modern Olympics under the new-fangled title, "Balance Beam", so as to distance it from its scurvy past.

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Tiny Story - Buried

by Sparra

Released almost 2 years ago

	I thought I could tell them all. Explain to them all. Show them all. When I did, nobody heard the news. Someone famous got arrested the same day. Now they’ll never know.

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and a new earth

by wirrow

Released almost 2 years ago

a sort of stream of consciousness-y thing ive been writing lately. i saw this timelapse vid today by bluebudgie and was really inspired to experiment with it. i understand how this might be seen as political or preachy or offensive.. but i honestly dont mean to be any of those things. it is directed at me more than anyone else. there's a lot of literary reference nod's in the text.

sub-point: the track is an instrumental version of everything is on fire

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The last remaining evidence remixed

by MorganLeigh

Released almost 2 years ago

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Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny

by RegularJOE

Released over 2 years ago

This is the version of Morgan M. Morganson's Date with Destiny that screened at Sundance 2010. Throughout the festival, this is the one we'd show as our example. Whenever anybody asked, "what is hitRECord?" this was my answer: "Here, watch this short film we're making; you'll never believe who did it and how!"

Albert proposed an off-kilter writing exercise, and then Metaphorest's beautifully strange short story inspired it all. I read the story aloud, Jenyffer.Maria started drawing the characters, Tori animated Jen's drawings, Lula and I did a live-action rendition, Lawrie Brewster took the project to soaring heights with his gorgeous visuals, and along the way there was the help, encouragement and roughly 180 contributions from throughout our community. We brought it to Sundance, and Nathan coaxed the lush and vast music out of the newly coined hitRECorchestra. (Good_Girl_Indie has written out a fabulously detailed timeline documenting what happened and when along this RECord's progression.)

Not only did we close our (two) official hitRECord screening(s) in the New Frontier Microcinema with this piece, but the next day, Sundance added it as a short film to play before the award-winning feature HOMEWRECKER on a much bigger screen.

I actually watched the thing again just now. And I can whole-heartedly say that, besides the progressive methodology with which it was made, and besides the warm reception it received at Sundance, just purely as a little piece of art, as a short film, as a RECord -- I'm as proud of Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny as I am of any work I've ever done.

Thank you, everyone, for making it all happen!
and thanks again...
<3

[PS] [updating soon with higher-res file, proper aspect ratio (!) and there's still more resources left to cite, etc, etc, etc...]

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new earth hi res + instrumental fire song

by wirrow

Released almost 2 years ago

wow this took me a hell of a lot of tries to upload. it seems like its a whole lot bigger of a file for a tiny bit better quality tho. corrected a few errors too :p

File Size:

584 MB

Note:

Zip Files are useful for upload and downloading raw resources in native formats like Photoshop, Illustrator, high-quality Video and Audio projects, and batches of stem files.