Simultaneity describes events existing or happening at the same time. This describes precisely what happens when we play separately packaged music and movie with an overlap of occurrence. A documented simultaneity (simo for short) can be reliably repeated by other experimenters of the simo craft.

Music seems to have always been played with other events like festivals, theater, or a romantic date. In June 1810, Ludwig van Beethoven produced the Tone Poem “Egmont”. A Tone Poem, also known as the Symphonic Poem, is an orchestra music movement where an extramusical event provides the narrative or illustrative element. This event may be a painting, a poem, a story, or something else. ¹

This musical style was later championed by many composers like Richard Strauss who wrote the 1896 Tone Poem “Also sprach Zarathustra” to musically illustrate Nietzsche’s writings by the same name. “Also sprach Zarathustra” is known to us today as the theme music for Kubrick’s movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”. ²

Experimental and innovative politics, art, and culture came to be called Avant-garde (French for advace guard). Avant-garde culture challenges the static norm.

Continued after the break...

Thought some of you folks might get a kick out of this story on RS.com

Meet the King of Stoner Rock Movies (Just in Time for 4/20!)

By now most everybody (stoned or otherwise) knows that watching The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon unspools a motherload of eerie synchronicities. But did you know that the same thing happens when you combine Led Zeppelin IV and The Fellowship of the Ring? Or The Matrix and Metallica’s “Black Album”?

Read the whole story at RollingStone.com!>>>

In effectively “reposting” my old “What is Synchronicity” intro, it kinda got me thinking a bit about how much in this little hobby has changed. Back then, DVDs were just starting be talked about as an upcoming technology, everything “consumer level” was still very much VHS (with a little sprinkling of laserdisc for the “enthusiasts”). VHS was convenient, in the sense of being widely available. And since most people didn’t really have their stereos as home theatres per se, it was relatively easy to manually set up a synch. Just pop in your movie, pause it… pop in your CD, pause it… and unpause both.

The manual method pretty much ruled. When it came to creating a digital synch, a lot more was involved. You had to find some way to get the VHS movie into your PC, and then remove its sound. The audio piece was comparatively easy, but even there, it wasn’t quite as easy as it is now. There were still nowhere near the range and breadth of tools for audio conversion that there are now.

Nowadays, the tools for creating digital synchs are readily available. Because of the weak copy protection on DVD, you can easily find both free and paid programs to rip movies from DVDs. Same for CDs, which don’t have any copy protection. And even combining the two, there are many free and paid programs that will let you do just that. And with YouTube and other video sharing sites, you can even easily share clips with friends and strangers.

Not at all like it was. It definitely illustrates how “out of touch” now that reposting is. It really needs updating. In fact, it has started to seem to me like a lot of the Arkive needs updating. It’s a familiar refrain, that I’m a bit behind… so I thought I’d try something different to both involve the community and maybe re-energize myself a bit.

So… a challenge to the community. To help rewrite the definition of Synchronicity, for all those new visitors out there. This will be the Arkive’s new contest.

Details:

• You can use what I reposted as a “seed” if you’d like, or you can come up with your own version.


• Submissions can be in any format, any length, and must be made by April 20th, to arkiver@xnet.com.


• Looking for this to be informative and complete for people new to the hobby, well-written (although I can do some clean-up on a submission that’s got a good core).


• I’ll do 2 runners up and a winner, with prizes (TBD).

Are you up to the challenge?

peace,

Here's episode seven of the new Synchronicity Arkive podcast, Arkiving Synchronicity. This episode features Arkiver commenting on the end of 2001, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. Again for your listening enjoyment...

Due to the nature of the actual commentary track itself, it's probably best listened to along with the movie. Downloads and a partial transcript follows after the break...

January 17, 2008

Jann S. Wenner
Editor in chief
Rolling Stone Magazine
1290 6th Avenue, 2nd Floor
NY, NY 10104

Hello again Jann,

Remember me? I’m the guy who sent you those thirteen sync DVD’s. (Hope you enjoyed them.) I also sent the set to one of your editors, Evan Schlansky, and here’s what he had to say: “This is by far the coolest thing I ever got in the mail!” His telephone interview lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, and he has so far placed the story in the April ‘08 issue of High Times Magazine!

Okay, if that’s not impressive enough, please allow me to drop another name…
Internationally renowned author and rock historian, R. Gary Patterson, has invited me to be his guest on Coast to Coast A.M. with George Noorey. (Gary’s testimonial attached)

“idol hands” Entertainment has been busy, too, adding three new titles to the lineup:

1) “Nevermind The Memento” (Nirvana "Nevermind" + "Memento")
2) “OK Hackers” (Radiohead "OK Computer" + "Hackers") &
3) “Devil Rekall” (White Zombie "Devil Music Vol. I" + "Total Recall")

Also included is the new and improved "The DARK SIDE OF OZ" DVD. This new disc has added two subtitle tracks and commentary by The DeVille (that’s me!). There’s nothing else like it on earth!

Please, please, please don’t let this opportunity slip away. Like me, Evan wants Rolling Stone to be the first major publication to cover the breaking news on this revolutionary new form of entertainment! Thank you.

Sincerely,

The DeVille
SyncMovies.com

Wow! This was the greatest Christmas present I received this year. Shades of Carl Jung--I can't believe the attention to detail in this incredible collection! The quality is excellent and the sound in 5.1 Dolby digital is tremendous. I was well familiar with the "Dark Side of the Rainbow" when I included it into both my "Hellhounds On Their Trail" and "Take A Walk On The Darkside: Rock And Roll Myths, Legends And Curses." What is fascinating is the complete ease in which the syncs match up on one DVD. No waiting to match the third roar of the MGM lion and starting either the LP or CD to find the syncs. So easy even a rock historian can do it!

What makes this set a must have is the OTHER collections. Imagine popular rock CDs synced with "The Matrix," "Friday the 13th," Night of the Living Dead' and twelve more incredible compilations. The Deville's Workshop may well be a cottage industry in opening our eyes and ears to a spectacular experience in which great rock and roll and classic films can be viewed as an entirely new media. Be warned! You need to be up on the music as the lyrics created the ultimate synchronicities. Believe me when I say this is a collection you'll treasure for a lifetime!

-R. Gary Patterson

Short post, but I felt this was worth it actually...

This editorial puts into words (written words) a lot of how I myself feel about music and the industry and what's been going on... just felt it was worth a posting in Arkiver's Reflections. I think everyone here can probably find something to go "hell yeah" to.

peace,
--mj
arkiver

Christopher O’Riley is a concert pianist. He also finds time to run “From the Top” which makes it seem cool to work hard and do well in music. The original idea for “From the Top” was to cross the genres of music beacaus as Mr. O’Riley puts it, “On too many radio stations, there’s this feeling that you’re listening to the Top 40 all the time”. “From the Top” is produced for public radio like the radio station 104.1 FM in Washington.

He believes that music should not be dumbed down as we may all find happening on the mass media radio stations. I know we’ve wailed on this subject here before. I believe radio does not reflect the true power and diversity of the world’s musical capability. Mr. O’Riley states, “That moment of discovery rarely arrives on the Internet because listeners have to know what they’re looking for: rather it is still radio that provides that introduction that can alter the course of a young life.”

On his show “From the Top” which blends music fun with serious music making, O’Riley has been know to slip in a transcription from one of his favorite music bands, Radiohead. I have to admit that Radiohead is beyond my comprehension but when O’Riley transcribes it, it is beauty to my ears. He actually has two albums out, “True Love Waits” and “Hold me to This” which are Radiohead played as classical piano pieces. My wife can hear the similarity between Radiohead and his transcriptions. But I sadly admit, that O’Rileys transcriptions sound nothing like Radiohead to me, even playing any selected song back to back with its double.

O’Riley’s biography boasts that , "True Love Waits" (Sony/Odyssey) received 4 stars from Rolling Stone and was as critically acclaimed as it was commercially successful. I have to agree with Rolling Stone. I like the transcriptions better than the originals.

Mr. O’Riley jokes that he thought Radiohead would put out a restraining order on him. But I think Radiohead helped produce his second album “Hold me to This” but I’m not sure so don’t hold me to this. And an amazing fact. O’Riley met his wife on a Radiohead message board!

I spent the last weekend at Screamfest, Florida's largest horror convention. The main vendor hall was huge, and every square inch was covered with freddy, jason, pinhead, etc. Except...this one booth that also featured some sci-fi, some old banned racist cartoons and such, a little porn and...yes he had a small monitor playing DSotR. It really seemed out of place there, but I guess that shows just how HUGE it has become. The DVD was actually titled "the dark side of Oz". I have never seen so many bootleg DVDs in my life. 90% of the vendors had a table full of 'em!

BTW, we had a great time. I got to meet Doug Bradley (pinhead) and Lloyd Kaufman (TROMA video). David Arquette was on hand to debut his new film "the tripper", a hilarious slasher/comedy with Paul Reubens (pee wee herman)as a sleazy concert promoter. It was a great film, I would highly recommend it when it comes out. We also participated in the "Zombiewalk"...a few hundred of us dressed as zombies took over the street in front of the resort. It was so fun.

Here's episode six of the new Synchronicity Arkive podcast, Arkiving Synchronicity. This episode features frequent Arkive contributor, JayDingo. Jay is the creator behind Jaws Like Swimming, one of the Arkive's Featured Synchs. Again for your listening enjoyment...

Click here to download it (approx. 9Mb, 28 min.).

Click here to buy it on CD.

A Transcript follows after the break...