Themed Plastic Bag Crochet Bags

It's always fun to make themed plastic bag bags - for holidays, special events, or sports teams.

For example, steelers fans are a really enthusiastic bunch - and my grandma, who lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is one of them. I crocheted her this plastic bag Steelers bag for her birthday. She takes it with her every time she goes to the Giant Eagle grocery shore and she always gets tons of compliments!

JOHN DAHLSEN

I have been enjoying the artwork of John Dahlsen. An environmental artist.

Top image is of totem sculptures made out of Bouys and below Driftwood wall hanging.

His artwork is created out of pieces found on the beaches of Australia where he lives.

FLAC Vs AAC

I'm getting some comments lately asking why I'm not making FLAC sets available and generally disparaging the AAC format. Most of them have a tone of entitlement I find annoying.

If you'd take the time to read back through this blog you'll see the reason I'm not posting FLAC sets is because I have some hope the record label will take up this project and actually manufacture it. Posting FLAC sets would defeat that purpose.

With the time and attention to detail we've taken to make Recycle happen, there's a thought process behind every step/decision. If you have some prejudice against iTunes, that's your own issue - not mine. There are plenty of other programs that will play AAC just fine, and the AAC format sounds better than MP3.

This is a project by the fans, for the fans - not for the hoarders who just want free music.

Any further comments asking for FLACs or generally insulting the format will not be published.

1987 re-EQed

During the course of this project a lot of good discussion about EQ has gone back and forth between this blog and The Power Of Independent Trucking.

With 15 singles down and 5 more to go, there's a total of 69 songs so far in Recycle, and my friend Bruce has done the audio transfer on all but one song - the remix of Paradise, which was done by our friend Mr. Analog Loyalist over at TPOIT. I think Bruce has done a stellar job, but he himself says in hindsight he would approach EQing the tracks differently, matching everything to the warmth of the vinyl tracks as opposed to the muddiness of Substance.

While Bruce has preserved everything as it was originally released, TPOIT has respectfully stepped forward and offered his own fresh take on the two 1987 re-recordings included with Touched By The Hand Of God, along with two possible explanations for why the originals sound so off:

Idle, restless speculation #1: They were in a rush to prepare Substance and caught [Anthony H. Wilson] off-guard when going into the studio in May 1987 to re-record these, so the resulting tracks were never properly mastered in the first place. They sound flat, lifeless enough that this could be a very real possibility.

Idle, restless speculation #2: Having just come off the Hague all-digital True Faith/1963 sessions, the band themselves recorded all-digitally as well (proof? None.) and didn't get the EQ dialed in just right. Perhaps the monitors they were using were abnormally brittle-sounding and mixing to those means the resulting product is lifeless everywhere else?

So, for those of you who'd like to hear them, download this [Link removed 20 November 2012] (24 MB).

This version of Temptation and the non-dub '87 re-recording of Confusion will appear in this blog later, in a bundle of tracks from '86-'87 to sit alongside Brotherhood.

Run 2 promo mixes

Our good friend over at The Power Of Independent Trucking has posted a few New Order/related/Factory gems recently, but his latest post will be of interest to many of the readers here.

In the summer of 1989 Warner Brothers US was circulating three different in-house promo cassettes featuring mixes of Run 2 and it's B-side MTO. While the single proper will be posted here in just a few entries, TPOIT has compiled all three of these cassettes into one FLAC bundle, including a beautiful instrumental mix.

Please to enjoy.

Recycle 15: Touched By The Hand Of God

[Link removed 20 November 2012] (71 MB)

Touched By The Hand Of God
Factory Records FAC 193
Produced by New Order. Touched By The Hand Of God mixed by Arthur Baker.
December 1987

Tracklisting:

1. Touched By The Hand Of God
2. Touched By The Hand Of Dub (7" Edit)
3. Confusion Dub 1987
4. Temptation (1987 Version)
5. Touched By The Hand Of God (12" Mix)
6. Touched By The Hand Of Dub

1 and 6 sourced from PolyGram CA Blue Monday 1988 CD single 870 354-2
2 edited from 6
3-5 sourced from Factory UK CD single Facd193

Notes from the restorer:

Written for the soundtrack to the movie Salvation!, Touched By The Hand Of God isn't one of the group's stronger tracks IMHO, although there's nothing offensive about it either. The single version was remixed by Arthur Baker, and it sounds very much of its time, complete with the ubiquitous orchestra hits. The vinyl was backed with a mostly-instrumental dub mix, and the CD single came with two other unique tracks… or at least, it was supposed to. Along with a previously-unreleased dub mix of the 1987 version of Confusion, the sleeve claimed to have the original mix of Temptation which was not on CD at the time. In actual fact, the disc plays the 1987 version found on Substance, helping to establish a long tradition of the band's releases having the wrong track names or details (one which Warner/Rhino has generously continued on through to the 21st century with the recent re-issues).

One truly remarkable thing about this song is the video for it, which consists of scenes of car chases along with footage of the band dressed up as a cheesy hair-metal act, acting out every cliché of the genre. It's hilarious, and even more so when you remember that back then, there were actually people who listened to (and even performed in) hair metal bands without irony.

The version as it appears on the soundtrack to Salvation! is actually very raw - almost like a demo. It was refined for the single release, and despite what the above says I think it's one of the better late-80's New Order tracks.

Apart from the band dressed in over the top heavy metal gear, the video also features Bill Paxton and Rae Dawn Chong in uncredited roles.

I still remember the day when my local record shop got the CD single in. It was December of my Senior year, and I'd skipped out of school. I was so excited I couldn't wait to get home and play it. A year later I'd have almost the same experience with Fine Time.

Fixed!

True Faith has been fixed and re-uploaded. I decided not to delete the original entry to preserve the comments, so please scroll down a couple of entries and happy listening. :)

The changes are as follows:

1. True Faith (now transfered from vinyl to avoid the glitch inherent on all digital sources like Substance)
2. 1963 (also transfered from vinyl for consistent sound)
3. Evil Dust (no change)
4. Paradise remix (still taken from Retro, but with the clipping fixed and a little dynamic range trickery)
5. True Faith remix (no change)
6. True Dub (glitches fixed)
7. True Faith UK 7" (new transfer from vinyl instead of a re-edit)
8. True Faith Morning Sun edit (no change)

The transfer of Paradise was done by our good friend over at The Power Of Independent Trucking, and while it's not possible to put missing dynamics/audio/data into a sound file if it was never there, he was able to massage it a little and get it sounding better than just a straight rip from Retro (which fell victim to the loudness war).

NOTE: the corrected file name should be "truefaithv3.zip" - I've verified that the complete contents will open properly.

Plastic Bag Crochet Class in Reykjavik, Iceland

I recently spent some time traveling around Iceland. And while I was there, I ended up teaching a plastic bag crochet workshop in Reykjavik. Some of the girls at the meeting were part of an organization called Green Drinks. I'm not too familiar with it, but it sounds pretty cool.

QA

This is just a placeholder entry, but we're in the process of doing QA on the True Faith bundle, as the versions I posted were not up to our high standards. Five of the eight tracks have been redone, and so far everything sounds perfect.