If you’re like me and can’t stand using iTunes, give Winamp a spin, they have come a long way in there portable device support. I use it exclusively, and like it. F**k Apple, do you hear me Jobs? F**k Apple.

Yesterday I received my copy of Irata’s self titled debut album. I’m impressed, very impressed. Not only are they good musicians writing good music, they are doing a great job of self promoting. Go to their site to see what I mean, you can stream the whole album from the site. Order a copy of the CD and you’ll get with it two stickers a small pin and personal service, all for 10 bucks, including shipping. Pretty damn awesome.

They are a progressive instrumental three piece. I’ve always dug instrumental, it’s something hard to do well, tell a story without words. With track titles like Infinite 8, Clown Rehab, Baby’s Breath and Drunken Dwarf, these are interesting stories, well told in a sonic landscape I’ve never experienced before.

If you like music, check them out here.

big top 1, originally uploaded by ross millar.

Little top really. My wife got these out of the in-laws basement this past weekend, she originally brought them home from a visit to her grandparents in England during her childhood, belonging to her father when he was a child. Fascinating that they used to make toys out of lead.

When I saw these along with a whole bunch of lead animals, something really appealed to me about the clowns. I had to photograph them, and try to capture them in the big top under the spot light.

The others can be found here.

xdrtb.org

Remember my last post? The one about The Library of Congress posting rights free historical photos on Flickr? Well, it turns out that there is a project called The Commons that Flickr piloted with LOC back in February. Since then The Powerhouse Museum, and The Brooklyn Museum have joined The Commons.

What is the Commons? Flickr says:

The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world’s public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.

Awesome. Like I really needed another reason to spend more time on Flickr.

Now, back to the headline that probably got you reading this in the first place. The Library of Congress has a Flickr Account, check it out here, for some pretty awesome early century (mostly) rights free photographs. If you follow the “Persistant URL” found in the comments of each photo, you’ll find a link to the archival TIFF file, very print worthy. Of course, they are just cool to browse too.

One of my favourites:

Mine Rescuer

Check it out here, and my gallery is at rdmillar.photoshop.com. Enjoy, that is, if you haven’t already.

stuff