The Astronomers Song (Part 2)

Way back in 1990 I wrote "The Astronomers Song", which has been a bit of a go-to song of mine ever since. It focuses on three giants of Renaissance-Era astronomy: Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo. It's a fun little song, and I've always liked it.

Occasionally, I'd think about adding more verses. Over the last couple of days I did just that, adding some much-needed diversity to the mix by singing about Caroline Herschel, Maria Mitchell, and Annie Jump Cannon.

I also happen to be at the telescope right now, observing at the Radcliffe 1.9-m at the South African Astronomical Observatory in Sutherland. I'm in the middle of a long trip and brought my guitar along for company. The observing cadence right now has basically 10 minutes of exposures, then a minute or so of setting up the next one, then 10 more minutes of exposures. Every hour or so there's about 10 minutes of monkeying around to find a new target.

I figured I'd put those two things together and record a quick video of the new verses to the song, which I'm dubbing "The Astronomers Song (Part 2)". I look pretty bleary because I'm in the middle of an observing run and I'm getting over a cold, so please don't judge. :)

Also relevant music:
OBAFGKM (song in question in the lyric "the mnemonic lives on in song")
The Astronomers Song (In-Jokes with Myself version)

2013 in Review

I suppose I'm not immune to the urge to look back and sum up.

This will be the 51st post to this blog in 2013. The majority came during National Poetry Writing Month in April, but there was a somewhat-steady stream of music, both originals and covers, and both informal and...less informal we can say.

There were also videos!  In fact, the two most-visited posts of 2013 both featured videos:

1. We Didn't Start the Science (for my 10,000th tweet)
2. The live solo acoustic preview of the song MarcoPolo

MarcoPolo was the only new Bandcamp release this year for the Gedankenband and I, featured along with its B-sides in this post:
3. MarcoPolo, the single!

And I was filmed performing MarcoPolo for a European planetary science audience, presented here:
4. MarcoPolo, live and under duress!

Other originals featured on the blog this year included (link to music, not the post):
5. Dear Kate Bush
6. Bisbee Blue
7. But Of Course
8. Congress St. Blues
9. I Still Reckon 
10. Solitaire: New Deal
11. Ceres Ferdinandea I: The Monk and the Prodigy
12. If I Can't Be
13. (I Couldn't) Keep Taylor Swift Happy

All the poems were pretty much collected in April, here in reverse order:
14. April 2013 on the blog

Though one poem snuck its way into May:
15. NaPoWriMo Bonus Poem

Thanks for reading, or listening, or whatever it is you're doing. I hope to bring you back for more in 2014!

Ceres, and the Ceres Series

The Dawn spacecraft is en route to the "dwarf planet" Ceres, with arrival in 2015. Ceres is a really interesting target, and we're going to learn a ton. It's of particular personal interest since I've been studying and writing about it a lot, especially in the last few years.

As part of the lead-up to Dawn's arrival, their EPO (education and public outreach) team has been organizing a set of Google Hangouts with scientists to share their impressions and expectations of Ceres. I'll be joining them for the hangout on 5 September, at 1 PM EDT, it should also be available in their archives. The event page (should be found) at  http://plus.google.com/events/cstdr6jkeceic04mkfomdbr3s8k

And, naturally, I've been working on a song about Ceres for a while. Unlike my song for Vesta, the previous target for Dawn, this one is more like a rock opera.  However, since there aren't individual parts to be sung I've been calling it a "rock narrative". The song is written, but I've only recorded the first part, which I present here in demo form:

Ceres Ferdinandea I: The Monk and the Prodigy

While I'm at it, I'll also link to the collected astronomy/geeky music I've made through the years.

I plan (hope?) to finish the entire Ceres recording in plenty of time for Dawn's arrival!

MarcoPolo, Live and Under Duress

Here I am performing MarcoPolo to a kind crowd of planetary scientists at the "Science of MarcoPolo-R" meeting. I wrote the song for this meeting, though originally the plan was for Detlef's blues band to play it. A few days before I was told the band wouldn't play (which didn't surprise me) but that they'd like me to do it solo (which did). There's a call for Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese verses, but I'd clearly need some help on those (though I think a Portuguese verse should feature Henry the Navigator). 

Thanks to Supersimo Slimons (as he is known on YouTube) for the recording and posting!
I hope to post the Gedankenband single version on Bandcamp soon!
 

MarcoPolo, a solo acoustic live performance preview!

Not sure if I'll be able to update the blog much in coming weeks, so I figured I'd do something this evening. Here, then, is a performance video-- not something I've done much of (or any of, actually). The song is MarcoPolo, the Gedankenband version should be out before too long (hopefully), as detailed in my previous post!

Video: We Didn't Start The Science

I do a lot on Twitter.  I'm probably use it more than any other social media site.  My handle is @ asrivkin, though you're much more likely to find this blog via Twitter than find me on Twitter via this blog. 

Anyhow, as I was approaching my 10,000th tweet I thought I'd do something fun. My 5,000th tweet found me at a famous landmark, but timing wasn't working out to do something similar for 10,000. So instead you get a video!  I did the "special effects" with Photo Booth-- it would likely have come out better if I'd allocated more time to the process and some effort into getting some better lighting, but perhaps it fits the DIY nature of things better this way.




"We Didn't Start The Science" appears a few times on this blog and elsewhere.  I of course didn't write the music. Because it's a cover it's not eligible to be on my Bandcamp site, but that doesn't mean I won't point to it and recent releases there anyway. :)