Dear readers, the Plaguedream Institute has just received a radio transmission from the lost airship Jane Guy! The brief encrypted message cut unexpectedly into one of our regular communication channels shortly before 11pm last night, at the height of a powerful electrical storm, and was repeated at five-minute intervals until our antenna was damaged by the high winds. The auxiliary receiver was powered up as quickly as could be managed, but the signal could not be recovered.
The Dept. of Exploration, who continue to presume their sole authority in the case, have not yet released the decrypted message (to Institute-wide consternation), but new orders were immediately flashed to the Man-Cub, and the crew of the airship Anodos has been placed on alert (the D. of E. denies that there is any connection between these events, but you can guess what I think of that).
I will continue to report what I can, when I can.
=PD
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
New Release: Disvega - Idrosfera
Disvega - Idrosfera
[free download, 320kpbs mp3]
"Idrosfera is a journey through the continuous, infinite water cycle: from the rain to the water-bearings, from the rivers to the sea, the cycle constantly repeats itself. The whole musical project was realized for the pictorial works of Riccardo Ruberti and it was presented in 2005 during the painter's exhibition at the Bottega del Caffè of Leghorn."
01. La pioggia
02. Le acque sotterranee
03. Il ruscello
04. Il mare
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Literature: A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica
Clarkesworld Magazine presents, for your reading pleasure, a lovely short story by Catherynne M. Valente: A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica.
The title is entirely accurate as to the form of the piece, through which device gradually unfolds a history of great delicacy and beauty, which evokes an almost Dunsanian elegiac whimsy. I do not wish to spoil the story by offering specifics, but there are images which will stay with me.
This Plague of Dreaming is not affiliated with either Catherynne Valente or Clarkesworld Magazine, and offers this link simply as a free show of admiration for a wonderful story.
The title is entirely accurate as to the form of the piece, through which device gradually unfolds a history of great delicacy and beauty, which evokes an almost Dunsanian elegiac whimsy. I do not wish to spoil the story by offering specifics, but there are images which will stay with me.
This Plague of Dreaming is not affiliated with either Catherynne Valente or Clarkesworld Magazine, and offers this link simply as a free show of admiration for a wonderful story.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Little to report.
My seasonal duties around the compound have required my full attention lately, and I have consequently been neglecting this blog - inadvertently leaving some of you, I am sure, hanging in suspense. I can reassure you that you haven't missed anything of substance, though the mystery continues to deepen merely as a function of passing time. The investigatory team on-board the air-clipper Man-Cub is pursuing some tentative leads, but it is too early for me to report on what they may have found, except to say that it was not the Jane Guy.
Spring is always a busy time at the Plaguedream Institute, even when we don't have a vanished airship not on our hands, as it were. Even with everything that's going on, I hope to be able to bring you some news more pertinent to our musical pursuits in the near future.
Lastly, I am relieved to say that we have received a message from To Repel Ghosts, informing us that they are well and will be returning to the compound as soon as they have completed their current activities (neither of which I doubted), and that they will be bringing with them a new musical artist for our roster (which is news to me, and remains to be seen).
Stay on the beam for news of upcoming releases!
=PD
Spring is always a busy time at the Plaguedream Institute, even when we don't have a vanished airship not on our hands, as it were. Even with everything that's going on, I hope to be able to bring you some news more pertinent to our musical pursuits in the near future.
Lastly, I am relieved to say that we have received a message from To Repel Ghosts, informing us that they are well and will be returning to the compound as soon as they have completed their current activities (neither of which I doubted), and that they will be bringing with them a new musical artist for our roster (which is news to me, and remains to be seen).
Stay on the beam for news of upcoming releases!
=PD
Monday, April 7, 2008
when n. was in the army
Of late, our friend and colleague Fabrizio Torri has been sharing in his blog the recollections of the soldier N., and his unusual experiences in the military. To the sort of reader who finds something of interest in this our own humble blog, I can suggest that you may take similar reward from a perusal of N.'s strange history.
If you are moved to follow my recommendation, please begin here, at the bottom of the page, and follow the chronological trail of posts upwards to the present day (and, perhaps, beyond). It is a strange narrative, yet perhaps not so very unfamiliar. Did fear or prudence not seal our lips, how many of us could unlock hidden chapters in our own biographies?
when n. was in the army
he discovered that he could materialize small animals,
If you are moved to follow my recommendation, please begin here, at the bottom of the page, and follow the chronological trail of posts upwards to the present day (and, perhaps, beyond). It is a strange narrative, yet perhaps not so very unfamiliar. Did fear or prudence not seal our lips, how many of us could unlock hidden chapters in our own biographies?
when n. was in the army
he discovered that he could materialize small animals,
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Brief and Unilluminating Update
In the early morning of the 22nd, after being delayed by heavy weather, the air-clipper Man-Cub reached the last logged position of the missing airship Jane Guy. There was no sign of the lost ship or its crew, nor any clear indication of what may have happened to them. Some scraps of metal were found on the ground nearby, but they were determined not to have come from the Guy. Weather reports from the time of the disappearance do not indicate any hazardous or unusual conditions, and discrete inquiries among the local residents have turned up nothing (though many of the people interviewed appeared red-eyed and haggard, and some complained of sleep disturbances, a frequent marker of PDI operations in the vicinity).
The last transmission from the Jane Guy has also been declassified, though it is not at all clear what we are meant to glean from it. I reproduce it here in its entirety (minus call signs and other radio arcana):
when shall the laurel and the vocal string resume their honours when shall we behold the tuneful tongue the promethean hand aspire to ancient praise alas how faint how slow the dawn of beauty and of truth breaks the reluc
Analysis quickly revealed that the text is taken from the opening of the Second Book of The Pleasures of Imagination, by 18th century poet Mark Akenside. The message was delivered in clean code with a steady and unhurried hand on the key, but was cut short mid-line and mid-word. Whether the poem was intended to convey specific information which they dared not transmit openly, even encrypted, or whether the Guy's radio operator was just being inscrutable (a propensity which I have been led to believe is endemic to the vocation), we do not yet know. Akenside's poetry is not unknown to our technicians, though it has not been found to be particularly active under laboratory conditions. Further experimentation and field testing is, no doubt, indicated.
Once again, if you have any information concerning the whereabouts or fate of the airship Jane Guy, I ask that you contact the Institute without delay. I will continue to post updates as they become available.
=PD
The last transmission from the Jane Guy has also been declassified, though it is not at all clear what we are meant to glean from it. I reproduce it here in its entirety (minus call signs and other radio arcana):
when shall the laurel and the vocal string resume their honours when shall we behold the tuneful tongue the promethean hand aspire to ancient praise alas how faint how slow the dawn of beauty and of truth breaks the reluc
Analysis quickly revealed that the text is taken from the opening of the Second Book of The Pleasures of Imagination, by 18th century poet Mark Akenside. The message was delivered in clean code with a steady and unhurried hand on the key, but was cut short mid-line and mid-word. Whether the poem was intended to convey specific information which they dared not transmit openly, even encrypted, or whether the Guy's radio operator was just being inscrutable (a propensity which I have been led to believe is endemic to the vocation), we do not yet know. Akenside's poetry is not unknown to our technicians, though it has not been found to be particularly active under laboratory conditions. Further experimentation and field testing is, no doubt, indicated.
Once again, if you have any information concerning the whereabouts or fate of the airship Jane Guy, I ask that you contact the Institute without delay. I will continue to post updates as they become available.
=PD
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