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Picture of the Day

Thursday
June 16, 2016

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Hey look! It's Rob Millis! TORFLI himself
bringing down the house at Asian Art Musuem
in a trés moderne théatre where the screen rolled
down silent as something out of Kubrick
, slowly
eliding the handsome view of Volunteer Park.

He presented 10 conveniently numbered .mov
files played one by one off his laptop, like laying
down platters on a Victrola in grandpa's corner.

He apologized upfront for it not being some slick
powerpoint but I hadn't come for a TED talk
--the mic was stationary, just as the recording
devices were in India in the early days of 78s--
and I liked the unscripted anecdotes and asides.

There were laughs and applause, especially for
the shrieking honking traffic footage he'd shot.
The multimedia mix concluded with people
fondling the orange hued, silky smooth disc
of shellac passed warm hand to hand with Rob
sensibly admonishing, "Now don't break that!"
  
   
       Check out his book: Indian Talking Machine