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Bern's avatar

That thing about wireless as a song-selling lyric device...

I worked in the bicycle industry for a couple decades and dug into its history a bit. Along about 1890-95, as the bicycle grew into one of the most dominant industries of its age (by some measures, proportionally bigger than computers are now) it also became a dominant cultural icon worthy of mention in other contexts – yeah, music. Because anything labeled with an illustration (or just the word "bicycle") – (yeah, the playing cards) would sell better. And the song about Daisy on the "bicycle built for two" was written in honor of an actual wedding of a renowned cyclist and his bride, who left the ceremony on a tandem.

The story about the new patent office housing all the patents about every enterprise in America EXCEPT bicycles – which had their own separate building – is apparently apocryphal, but it captures how much they had embedded in society by the mid 90's.

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John WB's avatar

I’ve been listening to noise (brown and other kinds) on the Infinite Noise Project Substack, which I have subscribed to. Sometimes the noise suggests a musical instrument such as violoncello or Rhodes piano, other times nature sounds or just abstract sounds. I’ve listened to many kinds of ambient music, and the Infinite Noise Project is my favorite by far.

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