Tag: UATV

Praise for UATV

I’m 49 and Australian. Without any shadow of doubt, this singular Owen and Vox conversation was more intellectually charged than anything our local media had thrown up in my entire lifetime.

High praise indeed. If you haven’t resubscribed yet, this is the time to do so, unless you’re outside the USA, in which case you’ll need to wait two more weeks. My current streaming schedule:

  • Monday: Big Bear Stream with Owen
  • Wednesday: Darkstream
  • Thursday: Arkhaven Nights with JDA
  • Friday/Saturday: Darkstream

I plan to keep to this schedule over the summer as we work to rebuild the subscriber base. And I haven’t forgotten about the Taiwan Invasion analysis; I will give everyone a heads-up before I stream that one.

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Go With the Flow

On last night’s Darkstream I provided some examples of what is possible with the new Suno 4.5 system. It’s definitely an improvement, especially in terms of vocal quality and overall audio quality, and it does a much better job of sticking to the lyrics. Probably the most useful change is that the initial song limit is now 8 minutes, which means that it won’t keep cropping fully-outlined songs short and requiring an extension, although it still can’t do short extensions to simply end a song very well and the Replace Section editor appears to have its selection timing off by a few microseconds.

What impressed me most was the way it finally let me finish SIDDHARTHA in the way I wanted, as no amount of previous extensions and remasterings using 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 succeeded in producing what I was looking to do. However, 4.5 allowed me to turn out a beautiful five-minute song that combines David Sylvian and Enigma with Herman Hesse, and it turned out so well that I intend to construct a full album around it once I finish the Byronics project this summer. But in the meantime, UATV subscribers can listen to it in higher-quality than any of the audio streaming services provide.

Speaking of UATV subscriptions, this is the right time to get on board with the new subscription-and-payment system if you haven’t started the process yet. I’ve also got the Darkstream up-to-date, and we’ll get Arkhaven Nights caught up sometime next week.

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A Message from Big Bear

Unauthorized has been deplatformed again from a payment processor. Out of the blue and we had been very careful and cautious.

It’s a bummer but I’ve been doing this a long time. You people are the real treasure not some algorithm or some green paper with runes on them. We will find a way and it’s all a blessing.

And although it can feel demoralizing, to spend all year inching our way back from the last fire. All while we watch what is restricted. The poison, the lies. But in time we will look back at the blessing it is and have a deep laugh at what was revealed. Thanks for sticking with us. Onward to the good the true and the beautiful.

If you still needed proof that what we’re doing matters, the fact that Unauthorized has been deplatformed again for absolutely nothing at all should suffice to demonstrate that we are. Of course, there wasn’t even an accusation of anything specific, just an airy assertion of some metaphorical “violation of policy” that neither refers to a specific policy nor points out any actual violation.

And to add inept insult to injury, the button to request a review of the unjustified action did nothing but lead to a dead link.

There is no need for demoralization nor will any despair be entertained for even one second. This is not a surprise, we’ve been through this before, and we already have multiple alternatives that have been in the works for as long as three years, including some unusual ones that may surprise you a little. UATV will continue to operate uninterrupted and unchanged, the creators will continue to stream, more new videos, music, and audiobooks will continue to be uploaded, and we will come through this stronger than before, as we always do.

Conflict is in the air we breath. Conflict is the water through which we swim. It is conflict that makes us who and what we are.

We will keep you posted. For fastest and most regular updates, get a free subscription to the UATV substack.

The Ride Never Ends.

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The Only Darkstream

Nothing dramatic, actually. But tonight’s Darkstream will be a listening party for the new SOULSIGMA album release, so if you are interested, please stop by. And if you’re not interested, then please don’t because we will not be discussing JD Vance, Russia, the release of the Epstein Files, or anything even remotely related to current events.

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The Only Skull

As you may or may not be aware, George Gordon Byron is one of my favorite poets. And his “Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed From a Skull” is my favorite poem that wasn’t written by a particular friend of mine, Dante, or A.A. Milne. And while it’s not well known, but I am actually a published poet, as I wrote a poem that was published in Bucknell University’s poetry journal when I was studying there.

Of course, as always seems to be the case, the combination of my talents with my iconoclasm not only caused the poem to be accepted for publication, but also caused half the staff to quit in protest after it was published. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…

In any event, I put the Byronic poem to restrained nu-metal, took the liberty of changing the two instances of “quaff” to drank/drink since it just didn’t work, put together a chorus that fit the context, used the final verse as a pseudo-chorus, and threw on a lyrical outro. The poem is well worth reading, and if you want to hear the musical version, you can hear The Only Skull on UATV. When I put the album out in the spring, this will definitely be on it.

Start not—nor deem my spirit fled:
In me behold the only skull
From which unlike a living head,
Whatever flows is never dull.

I lived, I loved, I drank like thee;
I died, let earth my bones resign:
Fill up thou canst not injure me;
The worm hath fouler lips than thine.

Why not? Life is rapid sped.
Why not? Nothing’s left unsaid.
Why not? Will you rest instead?
Why not come and revel with the dead!

Better to hold the sparkling grape
Than nurse the earthworm’s slimy brood,
And circle in the goblet’s shape
The drink of gods than reptile’s food.

Where once my wit, perchance, hath shown,
In aid of others’ let me shine;
And when, alas! our brains are gone,
What nobler substitute than wine?

Why not? Life is rapid sped.
Why not? Nothing’s left unsaid.
Why not? Will you rest instead?
Why not come and revel with the dead!

Drink while thou canst; another race,
When thou and thine like me are sped,
May rescue thee from earth’s embrace,
And rhyme and revel with the dead.

Why not—since through life’s little day
Our heads such sad effects produce?
Redeemed from worms and wasting clay,
This chance is theirs to be of use.

Drink while thou canst; another race,
When thou and thine like me are sped,
May rescue thee from earth’s embrace,
And rhyme and revel with the dead.

Now rhyme and revel,
Rhyme and revel,
Why—not rhyme and revel?
Rhyme and revel with the dead!

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Georgian Inspirations

According to Spotify, Charles Darwin is dead.

Got my mind on those genes baby, fixation’s slow.
Hundreds of generations don’t you know?
Natural selection’s got its groove, but it’s a crawl
Evolution’s math… it’s a mighty tall wall.

Mutations happen but they take their sweet time
Fixation in the genes, it’s a mountain to climb
Survival of the fittest, you’ve heard it before
But it’s the math that’s tricky. There’s so much more.

Get your groove on
Cuz Darwin’s dead y’all
Math don’t lie. And that’s a fact
Generations passing, one by one
Fixation’s slow but the funk’s begun!

DNA is twisted. A double helix spin (spiral!)
But changes in the code, man, they take years to win
Thousands of years just to make a minor shift
Mathematical reality disproves genetic drift.

TENS has been disproven, the numbers don’t compute.
Mutational fixation means the question is moot.
Populations change but it’s super slow,
It’s a long-winding journey through genetic flow.

So we DNA dance, shake it to the groove
Gotta feel that rhythm, there’s nothing to prove.
Natural Selection’s not a night at the club
But we’re caught in this math, yeah, there’s the rub!

Get your groove on
Cuz Darwin’s dead y’all
Math don’t lie. And that’s a fact!
Generations passing you comprehend
Fixation’s slow but the funk don’t end!

It’s also on UATV, of course. If, however, you’re an Unauthorized subscriber and you’re not sufficiently evolved to handle a beat and a bassline that funky, why not rhyme and revel with something a little more Byronic.

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