You may notice that there is not going to be a podcast tonight. This is because I am gearing up for a massive, high speed burn from Bend, OR to Chicago, IL. This will all be done with none other than the West Coast Informant, Shawna Hollen, who is soon to become the Midwest and the the East Coast Informant. The totaly trip will consist of 2,007 miles of driving. It will also involve seeing Beck and The Decemberists in concert, possibly in the snow. Shollen and myself will be taking pictures and keeping notes so you can all follow along at home. (more…)

So I was sitting at work this afternoon, catching up on my “correspondence” on my simulations machine (yes, I do need 8GBs of RAM to post on vdov) and I thought this might be a reasonable time to update all you people in the blogosphere on what’s going on, most noteably ASMS. The topic of “what’s going on in your life right now” is pretty lame for this site, as vdov.net has really blossomed into something I never could have imagined (I mean, really, it’s going to get me and/or Andy/Shawna and Co. a media pass to the Pitchfork Music Festival this summer in Chicago). However, it is still a blog, and as such, I feel it my right and priviledge to write posts like this. (more…)

Ok this podcast is a little late but nonetheless it has made it to you all on Monday. This is also the Rt. Rev. Fischer’s 60th podcast! How can this be, you might ask. I have no real explanation. I will spare you any kind of drawn out monologue and get right down to the heart of things. Until Friday: (more…)

It has been awhile since I’ve published anything here on my own site, so here we are. I actually have a few drafts in the works but nothing worth publishing yet. Look for more from me before I go to ASMS next week, and perhaps more still after I return. Anyway I got an email from one Miriam Fico this afternoon that I thought was funny enough to post here, especially since the vast majority of people who visit this site are scientists or are technically inclined. It’s a simple translation of common phrases people use in research publications, and I got a kick out of it. It also reminded me a bit of what Andy did with my latest post on my research (no, this isn’t at all up to date and I had no idea what I was talking about when I wrote it — maybe I’ll get around to writing something more comprehensive or at least accurate sometime in the future). The quotes are reproduced below. In order to make sure I don’t slay myself with any sort of unauthorized reproduction charges, this material came from here. (more…)

This is the first studio LP from Beirut, consisting of 19 year old Albuquerque native Zach Condon and his one man band. The only backstory for Condon is almost unbelieveable (I keep trying to imagine how I could get to Europe when I was 16). He is assisted by Neutral Milk Hotel and A Hawk and a Hacksaw precussionist Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost also of A Hawk and a Hacksaw. So as unbelievable as this amalgamation of Albuquerque native artists getting together after Condon’s youthful, European wanderings, Condon’s unconventional combination of sound makes for a suprisingly good album. The Balkan influenced sound is old and at the same time fresh and accessible. The similarity to some of Neutral Milk Hotel’s sound is apparent but the similarity seems to flow not from influence by the band but influence from Old Europe. Condon actually seems to dive more into the jangling old world gypsy sound than the enigmatic Jeff Mangum ever did in his creations. An album this rich coming from someone so young and with such an odd backstory is very intriguing While a lot of the buzz surrounding this album no doubt related to the backstory, interesting and folkloric European influences, and the musical proximity to Neutral Milk Hotel the LP itself is quite good and a near perfect mix of influence and creativity that bodes well for future sounds from Beirut. (more…)

Ok kids it is the Friday podcast hitting your feed aggragators. This week we have some great new music. We start off with new and oft pannedLovely Feathers with their album Hind Hind Legs. It is really hilarious to read Pitchfork reviewers knock a band for being smugly ironic and not serious enough. Pot. Kettle. Black. We also have a smashing live recording from Akron/Family. We have apparently been guerilla marketed by Schedule Two Records. It is great though because the Akron/Family video is great. (HERE is the original link to the video page. I posted the raw video link because the original page is infuriatingly slow in both Firefox and Safari… something is definitely wrong.) We finish off with a very interesting song by an interesting band called Beirut (the last paragraph is the clincher), which apparently consists of a 19 year old from Albuquerque who got tangled up with Balkan gypsies in Europe. So hopefully there is something in the mix that you can enjoy. As a housekeeping note I will be in D.C. this weekend and that may affect the Monday podcast. I would look for it in the evening on Monday rather than the morning unless I feel really dedicated. (more…)

Ok this Monday’s podcast is something of a concept session. Today I devote a lot of airtime to the band Man Man and I play a couple songs by bands that are not necessarily stylistically related but have a similar sound, including Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice and Bird Names. There is also a request from Chicago Jeremy for Stoney. This link exemplifies what I hate about myspace music pages and flash heavy sites. I never want to load a webpage and have any kind of media other than pictures load. Every damn myspace music site takes for freaking ever to load. The page should load and then if I want to listen to an audio clip or view some video I can play it myself at my leisure. I hate stupid web designers. That being said I don’t have that problem with The Pitchfork Music Festival website. It is well done and has no annoying media it tries to auto load. I mention this only because I will be attending this festival with, Our West Coast Informant, her brother the Good Dr. Hollencomium, and One Mr. Acosta. If there are any other Indie Sermon listeners that will be in the area you can contact the vdov crew via myslef at rtrev -at- vdov -dot- net. Until Friday enjoy: (more…)

In January (01/06) (before I was hijacked by AMT) I went to two talks, one titled “Mars Relay Coordination” by Roy Gladden, and the other on strange quark matter by a member of my group, Talso Chui, who I posted briefly about before. These are the last talks I’ve been to, Mars Relay is here, SQM will be in a later article (especially if you bug me about it). Hopefully I will be able to attend a at least one more talk before I leave the lab next week. Yes, I am quitting to go to graduate school…and 3 months early to have some time “off” (I’ll still be working somewhere…I think…anyone want to hire me?). So I will be 80% less useful to vdov, but really I’m weaning you off of it since I haven’t posted anything good to do with science in a couple months or something. However, we are not leaving you without a JPL connection because our very own rhollen will be taking on a Summer Space Grant internship at the lab and hopefully continuing some of the work I started months ago that I haven’t been able to continue lately. So let’s see if I can decipher these notes: (more…)

This podcast will be short, short, short. I hope you enjoy it and take lots of data from it. Let me know.

1) Modest Mouse - So Much Beauty In Dirt - Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks
2) The Mountain Goats - Stars Fell On Alabama - Nine Black Poppies
3) Danielson - Five Stars And Two Thumbs Up - Ships
4) Editors - Let Your Good Heart Lead You Home - Cuttings
5) The Islands - Humans - Return To The Sea
6) White Rose Movement - Love Is A Number - Kick
7) Modest Mouse - Here It Comes - Everywhere And his Nasty Parlour Tricks

As always you can reach the Rev. for any kind of comments, suggestions, corrections, denunciations, etc. @ rtrev -at- vdov -dot- net

Much apoloies dear listeners. This podcast was by all indicators meant for Monday. It was recorded by myself and the West Coast Informant, Shawna Hollen, on Sunday in Los Angeles. This was after a grand walk through the Huntington Gardens on Saturday. However, between my red eye flight back to Chicago and business with work the podcast remains un-uploaded. You may be asking yourself “Is uploading a podcast really that hard!?” In short, yes… It is harder than anything you can imagine with 100% of your brain. It was a near Herculean effort on my part just to get this to you. Until (the very recent Friday) enjoy the show: (more…)

There’s some nice content on the vdov front page right now so I’m going to make this first paragraph brief. I just finished my first year here going for the doctorate in chemistry at Purdue. As an analytical division member, I just completed CHM 621, entitled “Advanced Analytical Chemistry”. The course was taught by one Dr. Fred Lytle — a great guy. I really enjoyed the course, at least in some way because Dr. Lytle was incredibly entertaining. One Victoria Hall actually took the time to write down the most significant quotes of this semester’s CHM 621, and those quotes are reproduced below. I hope you all find this entertaining, as I can’t stop laughing everytime I read them. Cheers to Dr. Lytle for supplying us with these quotes and to Victoria for organizing and recording them. (more…)

So as not to bury the wonderful post about the Coachella Music Festival by our West Coast Informant, Shawna Hollen, this will be short and to the point. This week’s music is Chicago themed. Other than that there are some random classics. I will be in LA all this weekend so look forward to a possible dual podcast with Ms. Shollen. She is also seeing the Gris Gris right now so you might be getting another concert review from her. The only link today will be to The Cottonwood Gulch which is where I first heard Modest Mouse, with Baby Blue Sedan played acoustically by two guitarists on the back of a comissary truck. Until Monday: (more…)