Neither of these items is “news,” but since I missed them, you may have, too — and because they’re so absurd and wonderful, I can’t let that happen. Some things are timeless.

Via Chris Cheung’s Hong Kong’s-based Special Interest Group comes the Theremin Watch, “Modified (circuit bend) from 大人之科學 kit set.” I love the idea of a wrist-mounted Theremin. On one hand (ahem), it does mean that you can calibrate relative to your body, because it’s always strapped to your wrist. On the other, I expect that’s still something of a challenge. But it’s not so often you get wearable Theremins.

SIG Theremin Watch [specialinterestgroup.hk]
See also the more current honhim.com/blog

Andrew Cavette points to the Theremug, a combination of delicious tea and Theremin sound making, by the always-talented Kyle McDonald. This item made the music tech blog rounds in the summer and hit Make’s blog nearly a year ago, but then, unlike recent fads like iPhones and Windows Vista, tea is centuries old.

Instructions:

1 Prepare some tea
2 Expose the L/R leads on an 1/8″ cable
3 Immerse leads in tea
4 Plug cable into audio input
5 Start up max/pd/processing/etc. and average every 735 samples (882 if you’re in Europe/running on 50Hz)
6 Scale value and drive oscillator

I can’t believe that not a single blogger made an Infinite Improbability Drive reference here. Sloppy. Technically speaking, this gives you only the Brownian Motion Generator — you’ll still need the sub-meson Brain and atomic vector plotter. Rest in peace, Douglas Adams.

If you want to do this with Pd, Kyle wrote on Make:

For an idea of what the pd patch would like like… I just posted a screen shot of the max patch: http://flickr.com/photos/kylemcdonald/2126494098/

You’d use osc~ instead of cycle~ of course, and could reduce the mess between average~ 1024 and sqrt~ into a -~ and *~ that you set manually.

Theremug from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

Update: Keith writes to tell us more about his wrist-Theremin:

thanks for posting my wearable theremin!! Me and Chris Cheung is SIG. This product is by me. The original post is here that has more photo: http://www.the-demos.com/2007/11/28/theremin-watch/

May be you also interest my work Moving Mario , which is awarded in Ars Electronica 2008, interactive art!!

http://www.the-demos.com/movingmario/moving-mario/

I am also interested in Moving Mario — but that sounds like a job for Create Digital Motion.

We’re celebrating 48 hours of DIY stuff here as we get ready for Handmade Music tomorrow night in Brooklyn! Thingamagoops are the friendly, optical emitter antennaed electronic creatures. Whether your cat / significant other / fan base would describe them as a sweet-sounding instrument, they do make a lot of noise and look cute in the process. Optical sensors onboard mean you can reposition the lights for some fun.

They were fun to begin with. But in kit form, you’ve got even more good times as you assemble them / find an odd case to put them in.

The kits come with groovy labels, eyes and mouths a la Mr. Potato-Head (well, in sticker form), and all the knobs and parts and things you need to make it work. A kit will set you back US$55. If you can’t be bothered to find an enclosure but still want to have some assembly, the enclosure-included version is US$66.

ThingamaKIT Product Page

And for an example build not by the Bleep Labs folks, MAKE shows off the build process:

ThingamaKIT build photos [MAKE: Blog]

I hope we’ll see more of this kind of kit in muso land soon.

But here’s why appropriated enclosures are enviro-friendly and fun – from Flickr, an example of an enclosure rescued from an old desktop intercom by Bleep Labs creator Dr. Bleep.

If you’re not familiar with Bill Bailey, have I got a treat for you! I’ve never encountered anyone who combines music and comedy to such great effect (If you know of someone else with these skills, please tell us in the comments). Fortunately there is a huge volume of his stuff available on Youtube, so I can share some of his genius with you.

Tribute to Kraftwerk

There’s a little bit of theremin in that video, unfortunately his best theremin/electronic music bits aren’t included in any of the short clips I could find, so I’ve added some choice cuts, and if you feel the need for more theremin you can spend some quality time on Youtube or buy his DVDs: Bewilderness or Part Troll.

By now you probably have an idea if you’re ready to waste the rest of your day watching this troll-like figure. If you are: Youtube is your buddy, and as a final prize for anyone who made it this far: he has been working on some medieval porn music.

Bill Bailey – Medieval Porn Music

In this case it was “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” as the folks at Moog backed up their promise of ANOTHER DIMENSION with an intimate solo theremin performance. A sizable crowd enjoyed this breath of fresh air in a convention jam packed with high energy live gigs.

Ed.: Moog Music has an incredible group of friends when it comes to Theremin players. In this case, the artist is Japanese Theremin superstar ERI, who has the enviable domain theremin.org. She’s truly one of us, as she likes pulling up her webpage on her DS.

In other items from the theremin beat, our friends at Theremin World have some great items recently: a lost Clara Rockmore album on iTunes, a Theremin soft synth, and a chance to learn from master thereminist Carolina Eyck in L.A.. All this, and they’re getting attention in the New York Times. Theremin is, after all, the instrument of record. Congrats! -PK

I present, as mind candy for the weekend: adorable animals with synthesizers.

Cute kitty + Moog Theremin: Who doesn’t love that? From a local meeting of cartoonists comes this bundle of lovability, plus two music samples, ostensibly from 1936:

Dance of the Saucer Maidens
Dance of the Saucer Maidens

Penguin Lust
Penguin Lust

Sakie and Synthesizer: I think Synthesizer is the dog? There’s a pup we can take into our hearts. I’d say Synthesizer could be co-mascot for CDM with Hatebeak, but that might cause fur and feathers alike to fly. This shot comes from Suki Dhanda’s Year of the Dog series for the London underground; dog lovers won’t want to miss the full series at Platform for art.

Pound the Dog with Custom Gabriel Synthesizer: Gabriel Sound’s history of custom sound equipment and synths goes back to the 70s. This time, Pound is the dog, and Gabriel is the synthesizer. If you whistle for Gabriel, I don’t think this modular synth will move. Just a guess.

Kitten, the Synthesizer: How better to round out this synth/animal confusion than a synth that actually is a Kitten? The Octave Kitten was Octave’s low-end competitor to pricey classics from Moog and ARP. Steve Baker has a comprehensive site filled with the obsessive collection of sounds and images you normally associate with better-known synth hardware. So, give the Kitten its due.

Here’s where things start to get surreal. I told my Create Digital Motion co-editor and Web wonderworker Jaymis about this idea yesterday, and started assembling links. I was going to round this synth love out by saying a very happy one year birthday to the Matrixsynth blog. Oddly enough, Matrix has gotten the adorable animal fever too: witness Arak and Legion, complete with racks of synths and cat videos, and cats, synths, and music tracks. (Cat from the latter pictured below.)

We all know the World Wide Web is here just to talk about our pets, so I invite you to help CDM follow up its cute kids series with shots of your cat clawing into your Korg and iBook. Don’t be a stranger.

One controversy I’m sure we won’t avert: cats vs. dogs. I’m a dog person, so keep that in mind. This is an equal-opportunity animals-with-synths feature, but I may have to maintain puppy quotas.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Poor Tia Thomas! Here’s a whiz kid who can spell ortstein, velocious, marmoreal, and totipalmate, and she has the misfortune to be eliminated from the National Spelling Bee on the word Theremin:

Theremin ends spelling bee contestant’s hopes [Theremin World]

(She guessed “Theramin”, which Theremin World’s Jason notes is a misspelling widely spread on eBay.) Heck, I don’t even know what those words mean, though I’ll be the World Wide Web knows, as it’s smarter than I am . . . Let’s see, totipalmate has to do with webbed feet, marmoreal means marble-like, as in, “that’s a very marmoreal Theremin case you’ve got there,” and ortstein means, um, “An indurated layer in the B horizon of Podzols in which the cementing material consists of illuviated sesquioxides and organic matter.” Try to use that in a sentence. Though I will say, Crazy Pete and the Illuviated Sesquioxides would make a killer band name.

No, let’s face it: our children are missing out on a proper Theremin education. We need children building Theremins in Physics class, fashioning gorgeous metal cases in shop, and studying the instrument’s rather elusive playing technique in extensive lessons and together in enormous choirs. (Wait, scratch that last idea, as that would throw off the calibration of the instrument . . . for chorus, they can all have Martenots.) I’m sure the Bush Administration would be game here in the U.S., since inventor Leon Theremin had a background in security and developing listening devices (for the KGB, but now we’re all on the same side). And developing listening devices and hidden microphones? Also more fun that most of what I did in school. I’m sure you’re more likely to run into a Theremin player than you are an indurated layer in the B horizon of Podzols.

Otherwise, there’s just no hope for the Tia Thomases of the world. And she, incidentally, I’m fairly certain of this, is a whole lot smarter than I am. Tia, if you’re out there and want a job as a copy editor, you know where to find us. (If I misspelled anything here, readers, do let me know.)

If you’ve got your own interesting story, you can get free accessories for your TranzPort. If they don’t post it, though, try me. I’ll, uh, buy you a drink or something. Oh, and I love my own TranzPort, or I wouldn’t be posting this. (I ain’t no shill.) I just don’t have a terribly interesting story about it. Then again, the night is young.

Complete details and photos [Theremin World]

Related:

Build Your Own Minimoog [though that project was decidedly less complete!]

Theremin fans, there’s no reason to sit at home with dusty records with plenty of new Theremin performance to hear:

Singapore’s Sheuh-li in Texas

Our friend Sheuh-li, Singapore’s grand diva of the Theremin, writes us to say her Xenovibes show has its last Texas performance Saturday October 1. (Flyer after the break or see her site.) I’ve never been to Richardson, Texas, but if you hail from there, cancel your Saturday night plans and go see what looks like a great show, featuring an e-drummer and more special guests. And let us know how it goes. (See my previous story on Sheuh-li.)

Hypnotique in UK; Downloadable Tribute to Moog

Sheuh-li I believe is looking for more bookings in the US on her tour. But maybe you’re booking a venue in the UK and want someone local. In that case, by all means give Miss Hypnotique a call. She’a a fantastic player, and looking for more bookings. A reader points to her this week, in case you missed her in our Theremin diva roundup.

Miss Hypnotique also produces a radio program called Switched On. Check out the Moog Memorial page for a tribute and extended interviews not only with Bob Moog, but Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gershon Kingsley, and Keith Emerson, to say nothing of part 2 with “classic to trashy” Moog-made music.

Theremins South of the Border

Sure, you think it’s impressive having just one great blog dedicated to the Theremin, like Theremin World. Brush up on your Spanish, and you can read not one but three Spanish-language Theremin blogs: Mi Theremin, Theremin Hispano, and El Theremin En México. Sure enough, it looks like México has a great scene going, both indigenous and with visitors like Peter Pringle.

Got more? Let us know. Now go out there — especially if you’re in Richardson this Saturday. Oh, and thanks to Google Maps I’ve now figured out that’s really close to Dallas.

Bored with keyboards and drum pads? How about light-sensitive photocells with customizable control options, all in a spacey case that looks like it escaped from Sun Ra’s Arkestra?

Tony Amendolore of ElectroKraft has a new MIDI controller creation he calls the Lunar Module:

Multiple photocell “portholes” light up blue for feedback; use as a Theremin-like control

Push-button controllers can be used in combination for controlling effects

Send MIDI messages like program/bank change, notes, transposition, or all notes off “panic”

Customization options, before or after purchase, for controller options like pitch bend, sustain, modulation wheel, etc.

US$249, free continental US shipping, each handmade

The idea is, you hook the Lunar Module up to your existing MIDI hardware and/or computer and take advantage of the alternative control options. Looks quite nice, and the price is about right, knowing what these parts cost. Tony also offers an unlimited lifetime warranty, which is more than you can say for most music manufacturers.

Thanks for the heads-up, Tony!

Previously on CDM: (More of Tony’s creations!)

Theremin Guitar
Space Box: Theremin + Effects Box
Space Invaders Invades Synth, Guitar